


The Queen's New Toy

by chipperdyke



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Also Season 1 plot, Alternate Universe - Enchanted Forest, F/F, Girl Penis, Girl Penis Emma Swan, Magical Pregnancy, Pregnancy Kink, Way more plot than you signed up for, magic baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-11-10 01:13:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 39,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11116788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chipperdyke/pseuds/chipperdyke
Summary: It's time to kill Leopold, but there's just one hiccup: The Enchanted Forest doesn't yet acknowledge Regina as queen. Leopold is sterile, but Leopold isn't exactly Regina's only option...





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Retroactive guide to this fic: The first two chapters are pure kink smut. After that I veer off-road into OUAT-inspired plotland. The Archive warnings are real and a lot of people die, including beloved and essential OUAT characters. There is also memory-wipe angst.

The queen would have been content to bear Leopold's son and kill him afterward. But after years of enduring his exertions fruitlessly, she was no longer content to wait. The king gave her gifts, jewels, sometimes extravagant (never as excessive as those given her cursed step-daughter, but nice nevertheless). These she was not content with, either. She needed a new plaything, after Daniel. This time she would not be so incautious as to select a male toy, although clearly she would still need the male assets.

She began canvassing the servants’ quarters, and it took a month before she found a suitable target. Leopold's hair had been light in his youth, and his face wide, with prominent cheekbones. This girl was prettier than the Leopold of the portraits, pretty enough to be a noble - probably a noble’s illegitimate offspring. Maybe Leopold's, although with the man’s lackluster performance Regina doubted that he was capable. Snow White was improbable enough, and the king and former queen had been “very much in love.”

The potion was already prepared, and she doused the girl’s cloak in it. Not a love potion, although it certainly shared some attributes. 

The next day, she made a grand appearance at the guards’ morning meal and demanded a riding companion. “You." She picked the blond out at the tables, and when the girl failed to stand, she drifted to her.

The girl hunched over her porridge, stomach plastered to the table, hands nearly white where they grasped the surface. Poor little one. She was _embarrassed._

Regina cleared her throat, and the silence in the hall became lengthy. She finally had to say, “Your queen requires your attendance. Come, soldier.”

The girl finally stumbled to her feet, and Regina swept out of the dining area. “We should fetch your riding gear,” she told the girl, trusting that she followed. “Lead me to your quarters.”

She assumed that, like Daniel, this girl shared a communal living space, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she had her own room. Rather than waiting, Regina followed her into the room and closed the door behind her, taking in the bare surfaces, the unpolished raw wood. Very quaint. “Are you new here?” she asked, genuinely curious. She had never noticed the girl, and a guardsman of her rank would certainly be assigned to watch the queen.

“Yes, ma’am,” the girl responded, keeping her eyes down, as was proper. Regina was ecstatic. She would do perfectly. So pretty, so meek.

Regina stepped to her and put her hand on the girl’s chest, above her breasts. “And what is your name?”

The girl seemed to forget, and Regina smiled sweetly, resisting the urge to let the smile widen. She was already wet, thrilled at the impending conquest, and at the guard’s demeanor. She could be hungry for her in a moment. For now she'd be sweet.

“Em - Emma,” the girl blurted.

“A surname?” Regina prompted.

“Swan.” The girl gulped audibly, and Regina stepped even closer, so that she could feel the girl’s breath. She let her skirts brush the tent that the girl - _Emma_ \- had made of her trousers. And then she slid her hand up, making a short trail up to her neck.

“I noticed,” Regina said softly. “There was some foul magic afoot in my castle last night. You have it clinging to you, and that is why I have asked for your presence. Any ideas what might have transpired?”

Emma gulped again, green eyes wide and darting. Regina licked her lips, and then let her hand brush the front of the girl’s pants. “Could it have to do with _this?_ ”

Emma jumped half a foot and backed away, which only allowed Regina to look openly at her. The pants were thin and Regina could nearly make out the shape of it. Regina had only used the potion on herself, and it had not had such a… drastic effect on her. She traced the outline hungrily with her eyes, imagining the guardsman under her, imagining how hard it would be. Regina was unsure that it would fit inside her. She would need to prepare herself. Or the guardsman could prepare her, with that sweet pink mouth.

Regina advanced on her, attention diverted to the guard’s lips. Emma kept backing up, until she was against the wall, and Regina took her time in the approach. This time she ignored the intrusive object between them, and instead traced the girl’s lips with her fingers. “Whatever did you do to earn such a _curse?”_

“Nothing! My queen, I swear to you that I have nothing to do with this foul magic.” Despite the brave rush of words, the girl’s pupils were dilated and her member stood if possible straighter, straining for release, straining for Regina's wetness.

Regina let her fingers trace the guard's high cheekbones and then down, scraping her neck. “I know of such a curse. I am sorry to say that there is only one way to break it. I imagine that you can guess it.” She licked her lips again, and the guard watched the motion, eyes wide and hands clenching.

Regina put both of her hands on the guard’s shoulders, and then traced down her body, over her breasts, the hard plane of her stomach and between her hips, to the cock that jutted out. “Oh,” she breathed. “But you're so eager. I can't -” she kept her voice high. “I can't just leave you here with such a… big problem.”

The guard’s eyes had rolled back and she barely seemed to notice Regina's words. Regina slowly unbuckled the belt and loosened the ties, and the cock sprung out, into Regina's hands. “Oh,” Regina breathed again, and she needed this, she needed to be satisfied, to orgasm with this cock inside her, to take the long spurt of semen that must have built up inside the guardsman. She wanted to spend the rest of the day with the warmth of memory and with this guardsman’s cum dripping out of her. “But they will all wonder what is taking so long,” she told Emma, and released her.

Emma breathed out and opened her eyes. “Y - yes,” she agreed, and Regina was disappointed. Couldn't Emma throw her onto that miserable cot and fuck her already?

“But who will help you with this?”

“I - I can do it,” Emma said, and she tried to turn, to contain the cock in her pants.

Regina hummed. “You've already tried, haven't you?” she guessed. “That won't work. The curse will only be broken when you - if you do that _inside someone.”_ Inside Regina, actually. Regina's stomach curled with anticipation. This was hers, and hers alone. _Emma_ was hers, her own present to herself, to play with in her spare time.

Emma turned to Regina, eyes looking panicked. “I - I can't!”

“You've never wondered how it feels? To be so deep inside a woman, to give her pleasure and make her scream, to have her squeezing all around you, to drown in her wetness, and to leave your want inside her?” As she spoke, Regina turned Emma's hips back to her, taking the cock back from Emma, running light fingers over it. Emma's eyes fluttered shut again, and Regina snapped, “Keep your eyes open. Look at me.” She was hot and frustrated, now, by the girl’s innocent resistance.

“I - what do you want?” Emma looked down at herself in Regina's hands, and the sight seemed to overwhelm her. She looked back at Regina.

“Take off my clothing.” Regina turned, and a few moments later Emma's hands were on the ties of her dress. Regina had selected one that was easy for riding, loose and simple. Also easy for a simple peasant to navigate - her main object in the selection. She sighed when Emma slipped the dress’s shoulders down and traced tentatively along Regina's back, and Emma sighed back.

Regina slipped the dress fully down and imagined backing up, grabbing the guard’s cock, and guiding it into her right now. Regina would lay herself out on the table and the guard would fuck her hard against it, throbbing and tight inside her, and Regina would put her fingers on her own clit.

But Regina wanted to see the shock on the guard’s face the first time she slipped inside. She wanted to experience the first time fully, so she turned and took Emma's hand, placing it between her own legs.

Emma took over instantly, skillfully, and Regina was surprised. So she'd selected not only a beautiful lover, but one experienced with women. How fortunate.

Lightning flashed through Regina's body, and Emma moaned, “You're so wet,” as if it was dirty and not a statement of fact. She was making quick circles around Regina's clit. “Oh, my queen, you're - you want -” Emma’s eyes flickered up to Regina's face, and then her other hand went around Regina's back to steady her, bringing their bodies closer, making the cock brush Regina’s stomach. Her finger slipped inside, stroking, and Regina gasped. She had never had a lover who did _this,_ and it was better than she had ever imagined. Emma kept touching her clit in tight circles, and then slipped back inside and Regina put her leg up around Emma's elbow, feeling herself open to the touch as a gush coated the guard’s fingers. “That's so good,” Emma moaned, and then her cock spurted, wasting her seed against Regina's thigh.

It didn't matter, because Regina was floating, tightness building in her stomach, her hips jumping under the guard’s touch. Emma shifted her hand when she finished, and something was new, and _better,_ “Oh, yes,” Regina breathed. “Yes, yes, yes, make me -”

Regina exploded in white, and when she opened her eyes she was on the cot, and the guard was sitting anxiously at the side of the cot, pants again fastened but just as strained as they had been before.

Regina moaned and slipped her fingers between her own folds. She wasn't even sore. That had only been good, and Regina had imagined that harvesting the consequences of her curse would be pleasurable but she hadn't imagined _that,_ such pleasure without even finishing what she'd planned.

“I am going to need you for that again. But first,” she said, pushing up on one elbow and guiding Emma on top of her. “I'm going to need _this,”_ and she again unfastened the front of Emma's pants and let the cock spring out. It felt good against her legs, and better when the guard was looking at her very seriously, with those big eyes, as if she would say something. As if there was something to say.

“You can kiss me,” Regina told her, when the stare had gone on too long, and Emma let their lips meet, sweetly. Her kiss might be better than her fingers, testing, giving and receiving and only as much tongue as Regina wanted. A swift tide overcame Regina, and she was grasping the guard’s shirt, her hips thrusting without her permission. The tables had turned, and Regina did not mind, which never happened. She would let this guard touch her body, and touch her the guard did, with growing confidence, hands flat on Regina's stomach and fingertips light on her sides, brushing her upright nipples. And then Emma pulled away from their kiss to ravish her nipples, sucking and nipping, always touching with just the right pressure, and Regina was happy, happy for maybe the first time since her mother had killed Daniel and set her down this dark path.

And then the guard moved down her torso to her wetness, and Regina again surprised herself by allowing it. This was good. She grabbed Emma’s hair with one hand and ground herself against her mouth, and Emma delivered, in such sweetness that Regina was again seeing stars, gasping.

When Emma shifted her body and slipped her finger inside, Regina stilled her hips and took the pleasure, took the finger and it was perfect, Emma's mouth on her clit. Her one small finger brought Regina to the edge, and her tongue’s caresses were more than _preparing._ This was everything.

Regina hadn't orgasmed twice before, but that must be what this was, rippling and grasping. Another flood doused Emma's fingers, and then Regina was pulling her up, letting Emma wipe her face and then wrapping her legs around the girl’s hips, not letting Emma mistake her plan. Their kiss was cursory, and then Regina grasped the member between them and guided Emma to her entrance.

At the contact, Emma groaned. “Are you sure?” she whispered, as if this wasn't Regina's entire plan. She could be distracted, but not waylaid, not entirely.

“This is _mine,”_ Regina told her.

“Y - yes,” Emma breathed, and Regina couldn't tell if it was an answer or just an exhalation, because Regina had released her and was working her wetness against the head, anticipation coursing through her.

“Be a good pet and serve your queen,” she told Emma, and Emma nodded, swallowing dryly. “Open your eyes,” Regina told her, and this time it wasn't anger that laced her voice, but something else entirely. She had her hand on the back of Emma's neck, and she could feel the cum drying on her leg. Emma's first orgasm had been so much, a cupful, and Regina knew from her own use of the potion that it would be no less the second time. Her inner muscles trembled knowing how it would feel inside her, full and overbrimming, and then she looked at their bodies, together, and remembered the largeness of Emma's cock. Again she was unsure that it would even fit inside her. She could barely fit her hand around it at all. And it was so long.

Emma moved so that their bodies were close again, soft cotton against Regina's nakedness. But Emma's hips were bare, and they felt good against the inside of Regina's thighs.

Emma was not moving her hips, so Regina tilted her hips and thrust, hearing her juices slick against the large head. “Come on,” she grated. “Inside, Emma,” and it was the first time she said the girl’s name. She liked the feel of it in her mouth. “Emma, Emma, Emma,” she said, with each word thrusting again, and then Emma moved her hips in time with Regina and the head slipped inside.

The cock was huge, bigger than any that Regina had ever had. Even after Emma had stretched her with her fingers, Regina was still straining to accommodate only the head of the cock. Could they even fuck like this, or would it be too painful? Regina imagined the head of the cock moving deeper inside her, and then back out, and it seemed impossible.

“Yes,” Regina breathed, and Emma seemed to sense that she should wait, because she paused, one hand sweetly on Regina's hip. And then Emma kissed her with focus, and Regina needed this, needed a careful and sweet lover like this. She felt herself healing. Every new kiss was a baptism, and Emma's fingers were cleansing. A new beginning for Regina.

Her body tried to tighten around Emma, but the muscles could barely spasm slightly with the strain of stretching. Emma responded anyway, grunting and again closing her eyes, and Regina wanted to strangle her. _“Open your eyes, harlot,”_ she spat, and the girl opened her eyes, hurt flashing across her face.

Regina almost apologized, except she _was_ a harlot. Maybe worse than a harlot, because she wouldn't even be paid for the service. “You're mine,” Regina told her, and slipped her fingers under her shirt, raking fingernails against soft flesh. She could feel Emma’s ribs along her back. “You're going to serve me.”

Emma nodded, and then she said, with a voice that betrayed tension Regina couldn't feel in her body, “Is - is this OK? What - what should I do?”

“I should make you pull out,” Regina told her. She'd almost let the girl take control. She'd almost _liked_ that the girl was directing their encounter. What silliness. “I should leave now and let you suffer with that _thing_ for another day or two.” The moment she left Regina's presence the cock would be flaccid, but Emma didn't necessarily know that.  “With everything you've done wrong.”

Emma just shook her head at Regina, eyes wide.

The power rush was heady, and Regina dipped her hips, before thrusting up into the cock, taking another half inch. Emma's body shook with the slide, even though not even one-quarter of her length was inside Regina. Regina adjusted to the deeper penetration. This would be all she needed, herself. It was so thick and the stretch so intense that the head was already stimulating the sensitive place inside her. If she touched her own clit right now, she could orgasm in just a few seconds. She relished the waiting, the pressure, and Emma seemed to be holding her breath, which was precious and adorable.

“You wouldn't try to find someone else, would you?” Regina asked, testing her.

“Mmm?” Emma kept her eyes open, but they were unfocused.

“If I made you leave,” Regina explained. “You wouldn't try to find someone else to empty yourself into?” She rotated her hips, not to take more, but to feel how the cock moved inside her. Her body tugged pleasurably, and then when she reached the top of the circle the head of the cock was angled directly into her front wall, into that secret button inside her, and she couldn't help but sigh and push down, to press Emma harder against that place.

Emma’s hand went down to grab Regina's ass where it hovered over the cot, and Regina relied upon the guard’s strength, pushing her feet off the cot and wrapping them back around the girl's hips. “Come on, baby,” Regina breathed, and Emma seemed to understand, somehow. Rather than the vagueness of before, Emma's eyes snapped to meet Regina's, and there was focus in her body’s pose.

“Is this,” Emma whispered, and she withdrew a little, and then pushed inside, against Regina's wall. “This is it, right? Tell - tell me if -” Her hips were moving faster, tight bursts, barely inside really, but hard against that place inside Regina and - yes, perfect - but Regina recognized the look in the girl's eyes and -

“Stop!” she told the girl, and she stopped instantly, alert, and the look had left her eyes but her entire body was trembling.

“I need you all the way inside,” Regina said, not that it would probably make a difference with the amount of cum that Emma would fill her with, but she wanted to have her whole length inside, to feel Emma completely buried, to have their naked skin together and close enough that her clit could rub against Emma's mound. “Fill me, Emma,” she said, and the guardsman nodded, slowly and carefully letting Regina's body back down on the cot and following her body down.

“You - you should,” Emma asked, and Regina dipped her hips and again thrust up, letting another inch fill her. Not even halfway, yet. Regina put her hand around Emma's cock, and felt her own entrance, hot and straining, almost dry with the amount of cock that had already passed it. She dipped her hips and let some of the cock out, helping to coat her entrance again, and Emma closed her eyes, moaning.

Regina released the cock and wrapped her hands around Emma's neck. “Open. Your. Good.” Emma was flushed, and Regina started a tight rhythm, grinding into her, not allowing the cock to enter her too quickly, but eager to have her. She kept squeezing, and Emma just moved her hips slightly in time, helping, her jaw tight and her eyes nearly flinty. What did the girl think? How did she stop herself from coming before it was time? Maybe she was thinking about how much she hated Regina. The look would make sense, then.

Regina followed the girl’s eyes down, and with each thrust she could actually see slight movements in her stomach. The cock was so big that it was visible inside her.

She squeezed Emma's neck harder. She was nearly to the hilt, and Regina's body was so eager for the contact against her clit that she tried to go too fast, and was punished by a sharp pain. “Come on, baby,” she said, and it didn't seem possible but Emma was finally fully inside, stretching every part of her, tight against her top wall, where her cum would spill right into Regina's womb and hopefully end this endless wait for a child.

Regina rubbed her stomach, where she could feel Emma tightly stretching her inside. Emma gasped as Regina’s hand released her neck, and Regina nodded at her, rubbing her own clit, and Emma just shook.

In a minute they were both finished, and Emma was letting herself carefully down on Regina's naked body, not pulling out. Regina was boneless, weightless, and exhilarated, unwilling to let the moment of satisfaction come to an end. A few moments later the cock disappeared, leaving behind a cunt filled with cum. Emma began to roll off her, not trapped any more, and Regina pressed her side to keep her on top of her.

Content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave it to me to set out to write a truly blatant g!p and end up with fingerfest as the main event. Hah ohwellz.
> 
> Not planning a multishot but I could see it happening. Let me know !


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, fellas and gals. You asked for it, and you shall receive it. I'm gonna take you on a wild ride.
> 
> Please note the archive warnings that now apply: Major Character Death and Graphic Violence. The warnings apply to plot planz. Sensitive hearts beware.

_Three boys, growing fast and brave and true,_

_Each pushes the next into his coffin, before his due._

 

The crone’s words would not leave Regina's mind, even weeks after their unfortunate encounter. Naturally she'd destroyed the milk-eyed grandmother, but if anything Regina's brutality only made the prophecy seem more likely, words that now haunted Regina from beyond the veil.

She'd known Emma would encounter no difficulty in giving Regina what she needed. She need not have returned to Emma, probably not even a second time. When she failed to bleed that month, she could have stopped her dalliance, or at least made it less frequent.

But Regina was drawn into the guard’s room without fail. On the days she did not douse Emma's head with the potion before she left, she explored Emma's other organs with interest that bordered on obsession. Some days she left Emma with the monstrosity between her legs, and Emma wouldn't complain, not even a slight whimper.

A good toy. Emma pleased Regina immensely and without any strong sense of shame on either of their parts. It had not been displeasure that kept Regina out of the common areas of the castle, but depression over the crone's prophesy. And, maybe, a test of the girl’s loyalty. Surely Emma could approach Regina in public, although the cock’s enchantment might complicate the effort. When Regina stood in the same room as Emma, the cock was impossible to miss, so Regina could perhaps understand why Emma instead chose to finally approach Regina at night.

Regina was in an arm chair when there was a slight knock at her door. “Come in,” she said without looking. Was it Leopold, who now only visited her bedchambers to gloat over a child that he had no ownership over? If so, he could wait for Regina to finish the paragraph.

It was only when the intruder stood before her that Regina looked up. She raised an eyebrow and waited for the guard to speak.

“I worried for you,” Emma said finally. Her green eyes were not as wide as they had been when the affair started. That was not to say they were not wide.

Regina scoffed. “You have seen me,” she pointed out. The castle was large, but not that large. Regina enjoyed watching the guards train, and frequently passed the courtyard. She had not stopped the practice even if she had stopped visiting Emma's bed.

“It's been a month. I thought maybe the king…”

“Had noticed something beyond his nose for once? I doubt that he is unaware of our affair.” Regina sighed in exasperation, and the sigh did nothing to release the tension in her chest.

Emma thought. “Then why?” she asked. Why had Regina left her alone for so long?

“It was a _test,”_ Regina informed her icily. “A test you've no doubt failed. Who did you try?”

“Huh?” The look of innocent confusion that Emma gave her was endearing and infuriating.

“You know what I mean. Do you understand what you've imperiled? Just because you wanted that dick gone. You're known as my lover. _I picked you so that this wouldn't happen.”_

Emma just shook her head. “You mean that.” She gulped. “My queen, are the rumors true? Are you - are you…”

Regina stood, head spinning slightly, and took Emma's hand, placing it in the unmistakeable swell of her stomach. It was visible when Regina stood, especially with such a thin night dress on.

Her belly had grown rapidly in the time apart from Emma. It had only been a few months since the conception, and this largeness seemed already impossible to accommodate. If the crone’s words were unbelievable, the rapid growth of her belly made them plausible. Triplets, and not a single baby, grew inside her. It wasn't Regina's only frustration. Not having Emma's cum dripping out of her when she went to sleep - _that_ was frustrating. She had become far better acquainted with her own fingers, since Emma had shown her what fingers could do.

She'd considered telling Emma that the child was Leopold's. Regina didn't need a lover claiming her offspring, not when so much hinged upon the legitimacy of her child’s claim. But now it didn't seem to matter, not with the prophecy. And Emma had to understand that she could not, under any circumstances, let another person know about the massive asset that Regina put between her legs.

“Three sons,” Regina told her. “I should have known that you'd be fertile, but I only needed _one_.” She swatted Emma's hand off her belly, swallowing helpless tears. Before Emma could see her swimming eyes, she grabbed the dick that waited for her, pulling, grinding against it through the thin material of her dress. Emma's hands fell on her hips, and she watched Regina's face keenly. Regina knew she'd seen the tears.

“Fuck you,” Regina spat, releasing Emma and putting her arms around Emma's shoulders. “Why?”

Emma was smiling slightly. “Queen, this is a - a blessing, to have sons, I -”

“They're not _yours,”_ Regina told her, and her face fell instantly. “They're mine. _You're_ mine. Do you understand? You can't run around with this,” she said, and she grabbed the dick. “How did you fit it inside her? What did she say? And what is _her name.”_ Regina's voice came out in a threatening rumble.

Emma seemed to understand what Regina threatened. “I didn't, I swear. I wouldn't. I know that it's only yours. I am only yours.”

Regina hummed and pulled off her night dress, placing Emma's hands on her breasts. “Woah,” Emma breathed, and dropped to her knees.

“You like how big my breasts have grown? You'd -” Regina's next words were cut off by Emma's lips on her nipple, and she sighed in satisfaction. It felt like she'd spent the last month building wetness and now it all rushed out of her, eager for Emma's touch. “Faster,” Regina ground out, and Emma's hand drifted to her belly as her pace increased, lapping at Regina's nipple. “You like how you've made me into a vessel for your seed? How your babies grow inside me? You want to feel how they have already stretched me?”

Emma nodded, moaning into Regina's nipple. Rather than laying Regina out, she just wrapped her left arm around Regina and let her fingers quest into Regina's wetness. She circled her clit without pressing on it, which only served to feed Regina's frustration. Regina could hear the sound of her body opening helplessly, her muscles spasming, without a chance of stimulation. Emma's hand was slippery between her legs. She was satisfied to touch her like this, and would do so for a long time if Regina didn't stop her. Regina sometimes wondered if she liked to tease her, or if the torture was an innocent byproduct. She was tempted to grab Emma's hand and make her stay still, so that Regina could at least slip something inside to help relieve the nearly painful ache that Emma only fed. Just one finger. Anything.

Instead Regina taunted her. “You spent a month with that dick, waiting for me. How badly you must have wanted me to mount you and take every inch of you.”

“I thought you were done with me,” Emma whispered.

“I was,” Regina said, glowering. If Emma wouldn't give her any of what she so clearly desperately needed, she wouldn't give Emma what she wanted. The satisfaction of knowing how badly Regina needed her.

“You don't want any more of my cum, since you've got - you got -”

“Your miserable spawn, yes,” Regina said, and then Emma brushed her clit, seemingly by accident, and Regina nearly came. She drifted away from the peak with the sense that Emma would never do anything but tease her. “I don't need your cum.” At the same time that she said that, she imagined asking Emma to orgasm into her opening without actually being inside. Then they could fuck again and Emma could cum _again,_ and Regina would have twice the already excessive amount of cum that Emma always left in her. “I'm going to make you fuck me and satisfy me, and then make you leave with that dick still heavy and thick and wet with me.” It wasn't an empty threat. It had happened before.

“Yes, my queen,” Emma breathed, panting now. Regina yanked her hair to make her stand. She knew that look. That Emma would be so close to coming without even touching Regina's clit yet was preposterous, but it was happening.

“Take off your shirt,” Regina commanded. That usually distracted Emma.

Emma removed her fingers from Regina and pulled her shirt off with hands that were wet and shaking. She paused with her hands on her breast binding, and Regina nodded to her.

Emma's breasts spilled out and Regina licked her lips. She gestured downward and Emma continued stripping down, kicking off her boots and then standing still for Regina.

Regina let her eyes drift up the white skin, the perfectly smooth and shapely legs, the stomach and chest that rose and fell rapidly with Emma's breathing. Her hands, which twitched before Emma put them on her thighs to steady them. Her breasts, as large as Regina's were now, luscious and soft. The neck, in a swooping curve that ended at her jaw. And that cock, larger than Regina remembered, swollen and nearly purple. The potion was torture, too. How satisfying, to see Emma's want, and how Regina was the only one that could satisfy it. Regina nearly wished to make her leave now, or to eat her cunt and _then_ leave, although the more she allowed Emma to touch her, the more likely an accidental orgasm was.

But she had another copy of the potion in her bedside drawer. And as long as Emma didn't come inside, she would still be waiting for Regina whenever Regina wanted.

Regina took a step and grabbed the dick, seeing a flash of pain on Emma's face. She squeezed it, and Emma grunted, although she kept her eyes open and the rest of her body stayed still. “Good, pet,” Regina murmured. “For keeping your eyes open you’ll get to touch.”

Emma reached up with her hand, but Regina pushed the cock down and guided it against her entrance, closing her legs to keep it trapped between them. The head went directly against Regina's clit, and Emma pushed forward, putting her hands on Regina's hips. If the cock hadn't been so large it would have gone inside, with the force of Emma's thrust and the thickness of Regina's juices.

Instead it stopped against her entrance, and then Regina backed her hips away and she could feel the hot cock slicking against the insides of her thighs, and against her clit. Emma moaned, her eyes on the junction of their bodies. Her hips were still quite a distance away from Regina's, and the cock bridged the gap. Regina resisted the urge to grab it again, to milk Emma against her entrance.

Instead she let her hips move forward again, and the head directly against her clit was exquisite, so much more stimulating than Emma's teasing fingers had been. Regina could come like this, and she knew Emma probably would. She wondered if that would be a problem, and decided it wouldn't be. As long as it didn't deceive the spell and make Emma's cock disappear. That would be unacceptable. Regina had too many plans for Emma's dick.

She ran her fingers up from Emma's stomach and cupped one breast, rotating her hips to keep the stimulation. She squeezed Emma's breast, avoiding her nipple, and then latched her lips on Emma's neck, sucking hard.

“You,” Emma gasped, and Regina sucked harder, squeezing Emma's dick between her legs. “You're going to mark me?”

Regina did not answer, but she sucked harder, and Emma gasped in pain. The cock slipped out from between their bodies and slapped Regina's stomach, and Emma grabbed it before Regina could and thrust it back in place.

“That’s it, baby,” Regina gasped. “You're so hot against my clit.” She examined the deep red/black bruise she had left on Emma's neck. Nobody would miss that. Emma was _hers._

She considered letting Emma inside. The look on Emma's face as she worked into Regina was too precious, and Regina had so enjoyed how Emma had thrust into the place Regina had made for her between her legs.

She looked at Emma, and the girl's eyes were unfocused. Her hand was loose around the penis - she knew Regina hated it when Emma touched herself. “You like to waste yourself on my body, don't you?” Regina asked her, removing her hand from the dick and placing it on her breast. She returned the gesture, this time gently scraping the flesh around Emma's nipple, making the nipple tight and hard. Regina was torn - to keep looking at Emma's face and watch her come, or to take that hard nub into her mouth and roll it between her tongue and her teeth? There were too many things she wanted to do with this fresh eager body.

Emma began massaging her breasts, and then _she_ bent to take Regina's nipple back into her mouth. Regina would have been disappointed that Emma deprived her of both delectable options, except that one of Emma's hands went around to grab Regina's ass, and her hips moved a little, reestablishing the pressure and movement of her head against Regina's clit. Her breast went against Regina's belly, and Regina grabbed it, pressing the breast against her swollen and heavy belly.

“Yes, yes, that's it, Emma.” Emma squeezed her ass, and thrust carefully, without the overenthusiasm of her first thrust. Her hand on Regina's ass, the other on her breast, her mouth working Regina's nipple, and her dick against Regina's clit - every part of Emma was servicing Regina's body, which was how Regina liked her.

“You like coming all over me?” Regina asked her. “You don't come enough to feed me. I need more inside me, and you have to satisfy me. I am going to catch your orgasm inside me, and then I'm going to make you come again, and again, so I'm full of you.” She could feel Emma's touch get heavier, and she put her hand on Emma's back, the other on her huge belly. The pressure against her clit was nearly maddening, and Regina squeezed her thighs tight around Emma's dick just as Emma began orgasming.

The white cum spurted from between their bodies, drenching Regina's cunt and her ass. When Regina realized what was happening she shifted, grabbing Emma's dick so that it was tight against her entrance, and she captured nearly the rest of the orgasm in her cunt.

Emma stayed upright, which was a good sign, and Regina rubbed wantonly against her, imagining that her entire inside was filled with Emma, enjoying the feel of the ejaculate mingled with her wetness between Emma's dick and Regina's clit. She felt her own body reach the peak and then explode, and her cunt rippled, drawing the semen in deeper.

Emma kept her dick rubbing against Regina to feed the waves of pleasure that overtook her body. Regina was shaking when she was finished, and Emma saw her weakness and picked her body up. She was smiling again as she laid Regina in the bed. Regina had napped that afternoon and the covers were mussed, and Emma laid Regina in a nest of the blankets, warm and soft. She kissed Regina's face and ran her hands lightly over her body, and Regina couldn't find any feeling except satisfaction. The warmest glow filled her, and she tucked Emma's hair behind her ear and watched Emma smile.

“Three sons,” Emma whispered, ruining Regina's happiness. “How do you know?”

“It is not a blessing,” Regina snapped at her. “It is a curse. There - there was a prophesy, Miss Swan.” Her voice had lowered to a whisper by the time she finished the words.

“A prophecy?” Emma's forehead wrinkled, and Regina rubbed her forehead to remove the wrinkles. “What do you mean?”

“‘Three boys, growing fast and brave and true. Each pushes the next into his coffin, before his due.’”

Emma’s eyes raked Regina's face. “And you believe this ugly thing? That they will kill each other?”

“She said - before they are men. I - the younger ones will covet the oldest’s crown. It is common, even when princes are not twins. Each will think he was truly first born.”

“My queen, these words could mean anything. It could mean that they are playing among coffins as babes. The prophecy could be the work of an enemy of Leopold's, or one of your own, empty words to stir your worry. And Reg - my queen, even a true prophecy can be changed. Nothing is wrought in stone until it is done.”

Regina looked deeply into her eyes and saw that Emma, at least, believed that was true. And then Emma said, “You have to know that we will not raise sons to be bitter against each other. Our boys will stand together and fight together as friends, for your kingdom, for peace and prosperity. I will not allow that silly rhyme to dictate our future.”

Before Regina knew it she was nodding and pulling Emma in for a kiss, their first that night. Emma was gentle and warm, and Regina felt her angst squirming out of her chest and being replaced by Emma, just Emma. Whatever “just Emma” was, it was the only thing that Regina wanted.

Their bodies drew closer together as their kiss deepened, and Regina noticed how they did not fit together quite as well as they used to. Rather than soft breasts and smooth skin meeting and sliding together, Regina’s stomach immediately met Emma's. Emma did not seem to mind at all; if anything, the contact against Regina only seemed to turn her touch from comforting to amorous. Their breasts came together in a soft jumble and Emma’s dick was heavy and engorged where it rested on Regina's thigh.

Without breaking the kiss Emma put her fingers between their bodies and probed the slickness of their combined juices between Regina's thighs. Emma moaned in satisfaction, her touch very deliberately brushing against Regina's clit as she made slow thrusting motions, and Regina couldn't differentiate between her touch outside and inside because of the wet swollenness of her own body. Finally it was clear that Emma's fingers were fully inside her, and then stroking nearly fully out, and Emma's pace was faster and she was hooking her fingers to press Regina, still touching Regina's clit with the side of her hand.

Regina opened her body to Emma and held her close, unable to repress her own gasps as Emma drove her fingers inside. Regina was wetter than she'd ever been, and it was long blissful moments before she remembered why. It was Emma's cum inside her. Regina imagined that Emma was with each thrust driving the semen deeper into her, and then Emma introduced a third finger into Regina and Regina’s orgasm drenched Emma's hand and left her weak, and too full of joy for her weakness to matter.

“You missed me,” Emma said breathlessly, and Regina just laughed and pulled Emma's face back up to her to kiss her cheeks and forehead. Her orgasm and then Emma's removal of her fingers had made Regina's body feel empty, and her cunt was already ready to take more. There was never enough Emma Swan, today more than any other day.

Regina sighed and rotated herself so that her knees cradled Emma's hips. Emma's eyes instantly darkened again. “You were so good, only thinking of my needs and not your own,” Regina purred. Emma nodded and her dick actually twitched, precum spurting from its head onto Regina stomach. “What do you have to say?” Regina asked, tiring of Emma's breathless silence.

“I am here to serve you. What do you want now, Re - my queen?”

“I miss your fingers inside me,” Regina pouted, and Emma shifted her weight to one arm and put her fingers against Regina. “Four fingers,” Regina told her, and Emma started with three, her touch heavy and without the deliberate playfulness of the last time. Emma worked in her fourth finger, and Regina tightened her cunt around her hand, unable to repress a happy moan. She was already imagining that it was Emma's dick inside her, but it had taken a few weeks at the beginning for Regina to stretch enough that strokes were pleasant rather than painful, and Regina wanted to be fucked today.

“Deeper,” she told Emma, and the last knuckle of Emma's hand passed Regina's entrance. They stayed like that, and then Regina nodded and Emma eased her hand out of Regina and kissed her, lowering down on top of her.

Regina grabbed the thick hot phallus and put it against her entrance, relishing the way Emma's kiss changed, how Emma was already establishing a rhythm even without moving anything but her lips. It was the perfect rhythm, and Regina followed Emma's lead and ground against the huge head of Emma's dick. Regina spasmed into it as it brushed her clit, but she could only wish for one thing now. “Emma, you need to pound that dick so hard into me, or I will be forced to kill you,” she said, torn between malice and lust.

Emma nodded and she pressed harder against Regina's entrance, begging for entry. Regina remembered how wet she'd been before Emma fucked her with her fingers - Emma must have stolen some of that wetness away, because now they were struggling to get what they both wanted, Emma deep inside her.

But then Emma was inside, and Regina thrust up into the dick. It slid more easily inside, coated by their combined wetness. Regina moaned, a slave to Emma's body. Her own fingers did not compare to this, the hugeness of Emma, the satisfaction of finally having what she'd denied herself for all this time. Regina’s cunt was so tight around Emma's shaft and her entrance was straining to accommodate even the smallest part of the penis. Emma was already deep enough that the end of the penis felt like it was all Regina could have inside, and Emma pressed skillfully into Regina’s top wall. Even before the first stroke Regina could already feel her body preparing for another orgasm.

“Yes, fuck me, all the way inside,” and Emma pulled out a little and began thrusting slowly, with each thrust a little deeper. “Don't come until I've had mine,” Regina reminded her, and Emma nodded, grunting. “Good girl,” Regina moaned, pinching both of her own nipples. She watched Emma as the guard held her breath, looking at Regina's body. Regina wondered what she was thinking, behind those green eyes.

“You're so - so full of me,” Emma breathed.

“Yes, and I only want more,” Regina told her. Emma reached the end, and the base of her dick  was so huge that Regina's clit was almost against it with the stretch. They both shuddered, bodies together, and then Emma shifted and hit Regina's clit with her public bone and Regina’s body spasmed, wetness seeping out of her and her cunt gripping Emma's entire length.

Then Emma pulled back, just an inch, and thrust into her, and Regina shifted her hips to give her more access, giving up on her clit. “Fuck me,” she said, “Right now.” Emma nodded and she thrust again, and Regina remembered the rhythm of Emma's kiss and took over.

She realized quickly that the reason Emma had not started a pattern was that she was too close to orgasm. “Pull out,” Regina told her, although Emma's dick was already twitching. “Out!” she snarled, and Emma worked herself out of Regina.

When her head was fully out she was spurting again, and Regina held the tip of her dick against her entrance. This time she almost caught all the cum inside her.

Regina waited breathlessly until each shock of Emma's body passed, and then she put her heels against Emma's ass and pulled her back inside. Emma's cum was all the lubricant that they'd been missing before, and this time it was much easier to let her whole length inside. They moved together, and Emma was like wave inside Regina, gentle and responsive and driving, driving Regina higher and higher, faster and deeper. Regina put her hands on either side of Emma's face and watched her face, flushed, with lips twitching and eyes bright to find Regina's attention so focused on her.

Emma took Regina's knees and put them against her shoulders, and her dick shifted in Regina to press against the sweet spot. Regina let her, even though it would be almost impossible for her to participate in setting their rhythm like this. She trusted Emma's touch. And she was nearly there, although this orgasm unlike the others felt soft around the edges, like a deep dive rather than a sharp peak.

When Emma thrust, it was directly against the spot in Regina that drove her deeper. It took only a few deep thrusts to make Regina drown in it, drown in Emma's body and their sharing. Emma followed her a few moments later, and then the dick was gone and it was just Emma, curled against Regina's breast, their hands folded together over Regina's belly.

* * *

Regina had wanted a child, but she hated what pregnancy was doing to her body. The nausea. Her breasts hurt and her head spun nearly constantly. But the morning sickness was better when Emma was still there, to follow Regina sleepily into the washroom and hold her hair back as she threw up before the sun was up. It was months before the sickness faded, and it was replaced by debilitating backaches that confined Regina to her quarters most days. It was a good thing Emma did not have too much trouble visiting her there, although Regina sometimes wondered how she performed her guard duties as well as spending hours each day with Regina.

When Regina found out that a serving-girl was pregnant, she made her way out of her chambers for _that._ She called a guard whose heart she'd acquired through another matter and asked him to bring her to her study.

She removed the girl's heart and demanded the truth. “Did you take the guardsman Swan to bed?”

The girl resisted her, so she squeezed the heart, relishing the girl’s helpless wail. She watched as she collapsed on the floor, and then repeated the question. Finally the girl finally admitted the truth. “But I would never tell!” the girl added. “She told me and I said - I promised!”

There was no question about whether Regina would allow the girl to live. When the heart was ash in her hands, she turned to the man, who had watched the entire proceedings in horror. “Bury the body and be sure that all know that she has run away in embarrassment. And… Garth? Gary?” The man nodded, puppy-like eyes sorrowful and deep. “Forget that any of this occurred.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, for once in my life I've planned the whole fic through the last chapter. I'm going to try to work sex into each chapter, but it might be challenging to keep the pace up and work out new erotic scenarios with a G!P, which isn't my forte to begin with. So there you go.
> 
> Thanks for all the feedback and good vibes!

How stupid of Regina, to think that she could trust someone again. To put her faith in something so flimsy as a person, when she knew too well how quickly it could all end. There had only been two people in Regina's life who had kept her faith, and they were weak men who could not preserve themselves, let alone save Regina. Victims, not saviors.

Emma was both weak and faithless. Regina could not allow her to remain. She wouldn't have, even if this hadn't happened - or she shouldn't have. Even at this moment of crisis, Regina recognized the relief she'd found in Emma's arms as something that might have prevented her from doing what needed to be done.

But no longer. Emma came to her late that night, at nearly midnight, with wild eyes. Regina set aside her book and grabbed Emma by her lapels, backing her into the wall. Their bodies met, mainly Regina's overripe belly against Emma's hard stomach. She hadn't given Emma the potion yesterday, which did not mean that she couldn't use Emma's body - just that the use of Emma would not be quite as easy.

Regina kissed her with fury, and Emma met the kisses and then deescalated, slowing the touch, looking at Regina with those eyes. Regina tried again to stoke Emma's passion, but Emma resisted her. Regina had become accustomed to Emma responding equally with the potion and without, and this was disconcerting.

“My queen, I have found something out that disturbs me greatly,” Emma said finally.

“I do not care,” Regina told her, slipping her fingers under Emma's shirt to touch her softly.

Emma found her hands and held them with hers, stilling her again. “I need to ask you. Do you know anything about the serving girl Molly?”

 _Molly._ Bile rose in Regina's throat. Her fury was enough that she could have cried, right then. She choked down the tears. “Why would I ever concern myself with _serving girls?”_

Emma shook her head, studying Regina's face. “It's said that she ran away. But I have spent the day searching for her and have not found her in any - anywhere.”

“All day? What is it that concerns you so greatly?” Regina arched an eyebrow. Emma couldn't - shouldn't - admit what she did to Regina. It would compromise her, make her more aware of the potential of Regina's betrayal. But if Emma was so determined to confess, why would Regina stop her? She could take out Emma's heart right now, make her a slave, or kill her straightaway. Either option seemed alluring. Regina was fairly confident that she carried at least one son. She didn't _need_ to keep Emma alive on the chance that their children were all girls, or that the babes did not survive birth.

“It was under orders. She owes the crown money, and she was here paying it back. But - I don't think she would have run. She said she was - that she planned to stay.”

“This bores me. If you would not kiss me, you can leave.”

Emma sighed, but she wasn't finished. “Please promise me that you have nothing to do with her disappearance.”

“I promise,” Regina said easily, and Emma kissed her. Regina slowly stripped Emma's clothing off, starting with the leather vest that she had given Emma last month, and the boots from the month before. Emma was pliant, and Regina wet her own fingertips and rolled Emma's nipples, kissing down her neck. _Did she do this to you?_ Regina thought, and the grief made her pinch harder than Emma preferred.

Emma didn't complain. If anything, her answering touches became heavier, one hand carefully around Regina's waist and the other skipping between Regina's breast and her hip. Each touch was heady. Emma was syrup and wine, and Regina eagerly became drunk on her.

Emma was too good to share. What should Regina have done differently, to make Emma understand what was between them?

Regina pushed away the thought. It wasn't her fault that Emma had strayed, those months ago. She couldn't indulge self-recrimination, when it was Emma who did this. Emma, who'd signed her own death sentence.

Regina delved between Emma's legs, finding that Emma was slick already. There was something much more satisfying about finding Emma wet. This was real - it wasn't forced by Regina's magic. Yes, Emma enjoyed touching Regina in every other way than direct penetration, but the spell was designed for that act of procreation.

The wetness of Emma's natural body was another thing entirely. The look Emma gave her when Regina circled her clit with her finger was far more satisfying, although Regina had never imagined that she would think it. This wasn't about Regina's body. It wasn't Emma serving her. It was something else entirely.

Regina decided she would make Emma orgasm. It was frequently a challenging proposition, but worthwhile because of its difficulty if nothing else. If Emma had the penis, it would be only a few minutes of stroking her before she released her load on Regina's body. Without it, Regina would need to go on her knees and lick her every fold, the area on the right side that was almost as sensitive as Emma's clit. She would have to set a rhythm of swirling and lapping, with her tongue aching by the time Emma closed her legs around Regina's head and gave in to the pleasure. It wasn't like Emma did not go through this level of effort with Regina's body, but it also wasn't about reciprocation. What was it about?

Just Emma. “Lay down,” Regina whispered, and Emma nodded and kissed her deeply. Regina's head spun. Emma was nothing, and nobody. She was _everything._ Their bodies met with the thin silk of Regina's nightdress between them, and if Regina could freeze this moment and keep Emma like this, pale and blond and - hers. _Mine,_ Regina thought as she went on her knees at the foot of the bed, pulling a giggling Emma down the bed so that Regina could bury her face between her legs.

* * *

Regina woke as usual wet. She no longer had morning sickness, but her babies stirred early in the morning and woke her. It was midwinter and the nights were long, and Regina never failed to wake before the sun rose.

Emma was on her side behind Regina. Overnight she had removed her arm from Regina, but she was still close enough that Regina felt her warmth, and the soft puff of her breath against her neck.

She reached behind her and yes, the potion had done its work overnight. It usually activated more quickly if Emma had been without the penis the day before. While Emma was sleeping was the only time that Regina witnessed the cock limp, but this morning it was _not_ limp. Good.

Regina needed to pee, but better to wait until she was satisfied before leaving bed. She had not orgasmed the night before, but it was more than just pent-up lust. It was a need for Emma that Regina had never felt prior to pregnancy. Her body, like Emma's under the spell, was driven toward just one thing.

Regina moved backward to close the half-foot between them and let her ass meet Emma's lower stomach. The cock stirred against the back of Regina's thigh, and Regina ground backwards against Emma, allowing her thighs to close tightly, stimulating her engorged clit. Emma could not wake fast enough. Regina's orgasm was already close, and she ground faster, gasping.

Emma jolted awake behind her, and grabbed Regina's hip. “Do you want?” Emma mumbled, her voice heavy from sleep.

Regina just groaned, and Emma moved her hips away, lining up with Regina.

They moved together. “Yes, inside, Emma,” Regina breathed. Emma was not precise enough, and Regina was still moving fast, with a focus on her own pleasure. Emma slipped between Regina's legs, rather than inside her. Emma cursed, but Regina just said, “That's it, Emma, that's where I need you.” The dick was so thick and hot, and the pressure against Regina's clit so perfect. Emma could feel what was happening, and rather than thrusting or pulling back she let Regina grind against her length, providing Regina the direct stimulation that Regina needed to came early, her inner walls grasping for Emma and finding emptiness.

When Regina was finished, Emma pulled back, and Regina reached behind her to lead Emma back to her entrance. This time Regina focused on keeping Emma there as she started grinding again. They both gasped when Emma’s head entered Regina, and then Emma reached around Regina's body and eased her hips so that they were fully aligned with hers. Emma put her finger against Regina's clit, and Regina shook with the touch, with aftershocks and the overstimulation of Emma, everywhere around her. Emma started softly grinding, and Regina followed her. Swiftly their bodies were together, Emma overfull inside her, careful always not to push too fast.

“Right there, inside, harder. _Emma.”_ Emma pushed up in the bed and placed soft kisses on Regina's neck, and Regina was rabid for her, for this unbelievable pleasure that Emma offered her. Emma held in her breath and Regina told her, “Emma, please, please come inside me. I need you to feed my body. I need you - inside - all day.”

“You've already got me,” Emma said, her voice throaty with her own gasping. She started fucking Regina faster, nearly too fast for comfort, except that Regina’s body was thick with her juices, and stretched and ready for Emma's hugeness.

When Emma had released her load inside Regina and Regina had ridden the cock hard until it disappeared inside her, she opened her legs up and Emma circled her clit with her one finger and whispered fantasies into Regina's ear until she came, too. The fantasies rang in Regina's head all day, a focus of her attention greater even than the cum inside her, or her belly which seemed at times larger than Emma's entire body would be if she had crawled somehow into Regina.

_I'm gonna love you forever. I will always be here to satisfy you. I will give you and our sons everything. You're all I need, and I can be everything you need, too, Regina. My Regina._

* * *

Moments after Regina birthed the placenta she took the healing potion she'd prepared, sighing as it stitched together her broken skin and made swift work of her stretched womb. Discomfort remained, organs shifting after months of being impacted, but it was not the blinding pain that was already fading in memory. She looked over at the table they'd placed her three boys on. The first two were swaddled, and the last tiny and red, being examined and wiped down by one of the midwives.

“Give them to me,” she said, finding that her voice cracked. The midwives ignored her until she began to stand, and then one of them told her to stay still and brought the two bundles over, settling them in her arms. Blue for the first born, and red for the second.

“Henry and Emmett,” Regina named them, kissing each wrinkled face. “My beloved.” She felt a sense of peace, although the prophecy still hung over them like a dark cloud. _Three boys._ Regina had never hoped to be so lucky, and had never feared such wretchedness as this.

The third son was so much tinier than his brothers, and after cleaning and wrapping him in a green blanket they placed him on her stomach between them. They were all three so very small, but it also seemed impossible that _this_ was what had been inside Regina. Actual humans, real life, babies each with two eyes and one tiny nose and mouths that opened in horrific squalls like sea birds or vultures, unhappy to be outside in this bright cold world with the specter of death lingering, fading with each successful breath, but always to hang over their shoulders with the likeness of the dead crone.

It was just a moment before they took Henry away, giving him to the wet nurse they'd selected before. The three midwives and nurse left together, although Regina could hear voices just outside. Emma's voice was distinct in the mix, and part of Regina was glad that the wet nurse had paused to let Emma see Henry. Regina clamped down on the sentiment before it escaped her control and consumed her. Emma was not worthy of any soft feeling that Regina might have for her, not today or any other day. And Emma must stay away from Regina's sons, even if she was assigned without fail to guard Regina herself.

Regina shifted the last son to her right arm and kissed his tiny forehead. _Daniel._ Leopold would give them other names, but those names did not matter to Regina and would not matter to her sons, either.

When they found a second wet nurse Emmett was removed from Regina's arms, too. Again Regina heard the voices outside, and the boy’s name, _Emmett,_ and although she was bitter she did not regret the choice of names. Emma may be many things, but she deserved a name to remember her by, when all was done.

Regina turned in the bed and looked at her smallest son's face. He was so small, too weak even to cry. He just moaned, and Regina's breasts ached harshly.

She turned in the bed and removed one of her breasts. If the attendants wouldn't find a third wet nurse and the first would not return quickly, Regina would not let this smallest son suffer. She guided her nipple to his lips and he didn't understand. It was a long minute before he latched on, still weak, and then one of the nurses was back and scolding her for breastfeeding.

His being neglected in the first days or weeks of his life in favor of his big, strong brothers could be the first fulfillment of the prophecy. Regina would not allow her Daniel to be neglected, not for one moment.

“You will turn directly around and leave this room until you bring back Henry and Emmett,” Regina told her, brokering no argument. “I am the queen and you are a slimy gastropod with waning employment prospects.” When the woman paused in the doorway, Regina said, _“Go away.”_

She went.

There was a commotion outside a moment later, and then Emma poked her head around the threshold. “Queen Regina, the King is here and wishes to enter.”

“Let him in,” Regina said, sulking. She did not remove her nipple from Daniel, whose suckling had produced little result that Regina could see.

Leopold's eyes went straight to the smallest. “I have already seen the first and the second. Is this - he is a little runt, isn't he?” Leopold's simple face was split with a fond smile.

Regina didn't respond, and Leopold stayed far away, hovering with a mix of eagerness and shyness.

He found words after a long pause. “They are so lovely, Regina, my queen. Thank you.”

Regina considered continuing to ignore him, but then she nodded slightly. Leopold could have a few weeks of delight before she dosed him with the poison her dear father had smuggled her from a far away land. He should show his pride to the kingdom. They should all rejoice, after all. No longer was that slinking awful girl Snow White the heir. Now Henry would be, and Prince Henry would be far worthier than the cuckold king who had taken a Baron’s unwilling daughter as queen.

* * *

It was all too easy. The royal physicians knew the poison for what it was, and Regina let the mechanisms of her plot unfold while she stayed safe in her rooms, and mainly in the nursery where the two wet nurses and their own hearty, disgusting infants attended her sons.

Regina herself could not stay away from the three bundles. She forced the nurses to feed Daniel while she watched, because otherwise how would she trust that his frailness would be temporary? She held them, Daniel most of all, and the boys seemed to know her. She whispered all the secrets she knew into their ears. When she brought one or the other to the gardens, Emma found them there, and rather than snatching the baby away, Regina let Emma coo at him. Never to hold.

“Who is this?” Emma always asked, although they always had their colored blankets. Even naked they had colored ribbons on their tiny ankles. Like the nurses, Emma had noticed that these infants’ features were mirrors, Daniel a smaller duplicate of his brothers. They were otherwise exact copies. Identical.

Emma was beside herself with the birth of these babies. Regina still welcomed her into her bed, but rather than the meeting of bodies it was a nightly interrogation. Emma would normally have no reason to visit the well-tended nursery, and so she had to rely upon Regina's reports. Somehow Regina did not mind this as much as the chance of Emma holding one of their sons. With their children far away from them, in a nursery attended by peasants, Emma could not work the magic she had done on Regina and thereby turn their sons away from Regina. After all, Regina knew that Emma's magic was built on a lie. No matter how good it felt to have her close, Emma was faithless.

The night Regina put the poison in Leopold's cup, she came back to her rooms late to find Emma already asleep in her bed. Regina undressed and wrapped her body around Emma's, and Emma just stirred sleepily and returned the gesture. Regina had never been held so closely as Emma could hold her. Their bodies were two pieces made to fit. After finding the place where their skin’s sharing was maximized, Emma immediately began snoring softly into Regina's neck. Regina did not sleep.

When Leopold’s body was found that morning, Emma dressed quickly and ran for the door. Regina wondered if Emma worried that she'd be found with the queen that morning. She wondered if Emma knew that the last glance she shot at Regina would be the last time she ever saw her.

Regina spared nothing in her playacting that day. “The father of my babies! Our beloved king! Dead by such horrid means! Dead by his own guard’s hands… what would ever motivate her to do such a thing?” They all looked at Regina knowingly.

That was what made the framing so perfect. Even if the poison was not so distinctively from Emma's realm, they probably would have arrested her anyway. It was known, after all, that Emma shared her bed. If anything, the openness of her affair with Emma would support her sons’ birthright. Regina had chosen her lover, and it was not a man.

Regina did not attend Emma's trial, if it should be called such. It was a hearing, and the final decision was made by the Captain of the Guard, Emma's direct superior. Her execution would be swift, dawn on the day after the hearing.

Regina could not sleep, although this was the second night in a row. She paced the nursery, waking each of her sons in turn and seeking from them a comfort that lasted only as long as their sleepy eyes could meet hers.

Finally it was far past midnight and she let them sleep. She took the stairs to the jail and each of the guardsmen let her through like they were expecting her.

Emma was sitting on the ground, her arms crossed loosely over knees drawn up to her chest. She had her head hanging, and did not raise it when the door to the cell block opened.

Emma was alone in the block, and Regina told the guards to leave. They bowed, probably hoping that Emma would kill Regina, too. Or convinced of Emma's innocence, which was the more likely scenario.

Emma barely twitched, until Regina whispered, “I had to.”

“He knew, Regina. He knew all about us. He talked to me like five months ago, you know, when you left me for a month.” Emma leaned her head back to rest against the cell wall. Regina could see her neck move as she swallowed. “He said that he understood that you had needs he couldn't meet. And he said he was glad you found _me._ He said you were miserable and that I should go to you, because there was nothing he could do to console you. _And you just killed him.”_

Regina had expected Emma to beg her for mercy. She'd expected tears, not this cold lecture. She was stunned.

“He was worthless. He could not die fast enough left alone.” It was a confession, but Emma did not even blink. Instead she opened her mouth and continued the cold sentencing.

“I knew that you were never mine, never. When we were together it felt - like I could, like I could maybe make you happy, but never that you could be mine. He gave me permission to love you, Regina. He was a good, kind man, and he did not deserve that death. You're a monster. He gave me permission to love you, but you don't deserve my love. You don't deserve _anything.”_

Regina left her, head spinning. She went to her tower and found the half-empty vial, and then went to the servants’ quarters, cloaked in an obfuscation. She took a scullery maid’s heart and planted the vial under her mattress. The matter would be easily enough fixed, and Emma would be returned to her as she once was, the guardswoman who had been too embarrassed to stand in the mess hall. Regina's own gift to herself.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I should just say that if you're reading for porn, you might as well stop now. This story is now essentially plot-only. 
> 
> I mean I could probably pause and try a little harder for porn, but the spirit isn't really in me right now. Next chapter!

Propriety required that Regina attend the execution, and she did so in a black veil. As the scullery maid’s body twitched at the end of the hangman's noose in a parody of puppeteering, she could not suppress a smile. Time would right all things in this world, given vision and a careful, light touch.

She checked the heart in her vault, and finding it dark she destroyed it. Not that many would care, not those who could trace the heart and Regina's magic. She went straight to her sons’ nursery, and she was taking Emmett into her arms when she heard the distinctive sound of teleportation behind her.

She spun, holding Emmett to her breasts, backing away from the center of the room toward Henry and Daniel’s cribs. The wet nurses were already snoring, a sound Regina was very familiar with. In this case it was not due to laziness.

“Rumplestiltskin,” Regina whispered.

“Is that any way to greet the man who’s just granted you your kingdom?” He was gleeful, flourishing. If Regina wasn't mistaken, he wore a new shirt, red ruffled and frilly under his golden vest. The effect was not unimpressive, especially against the funereal black widow’s dress Regina wore.

 _“I_ fought for this victory, not you,” Regina hissed. “You neither deserve nor shall be granted any special credit for _my_ efforts.”

Rumplestiltskin froze in place, and despite herself Regina was afraid of him. Rumplestiltskin was never so dangerous as when provoked. And Regina could not fight him. If he chose to take one of these sons, could Regina stop him? Should she die fighting for one, and leave the other two orphaned?

Not entirely orphaned. Emma was alive, probably returned to her tiny room after a week imprisoned. Raging against Regina, or grateful to her? Either way, time would again be Regina's ally.

Rumplestiltskin began moving again, slowly advancing on the cribs and Regina. In her arms, Emmett began to wail, and Regina rubbed his back even as she moved to put herself between the imp and his goal.

“Tell me, queen, who gave you magic?”

“My _mother,”_ Regina spat. Behind her, Henry picked up on Emmett's distress and began his own chorus.

“And who gave _her_ magic? Who gave you the trap you needed to banish her from this realm? Oh, never fear, Regina.” He stopped short, too close to Emmett’s pink blanket. “I would never want to take a babe that was doomed to death.”

Regina choked, and a blast of magic inadvertently burst from her outstretched hand. It washed over Rumplestiltskin, barely ruffling his hair. The imp knew of the prophecy? Or did he, too, see the shadow of death over their shoulders? To die before they had reached adulthood - a fate that Regina felt helpless to prevent.

When all had settled, the babies had stopped crying. All that was left was the snoring of the maids, punctuating silence.

“So you know their fates.” For once Rumplestiltskin did not taunt.

“Please, master,” Regina managed. “I would do anything to save them.”

“There is a way. A land to which you can bring them, where their fates cannot follow them.” Rumplestiltskin's eyebrows twitched upward. “Interested?”

* * *

Later that day, Regina returned to the nursery from a long walk with Emmett, who had been inconsolable after the imp’s visit. She found Snow there, rocking Daniel with a face streaked with tears.

“Why aren't you in your rooms?” Regina snapped at her. Without putting Emmett down, she plucked Daniel from the girl, who looked up at Regina with watery eyes.

“Father told me not to hide away from the world, no matter whether it seems that all is lost.”

Snow was twice Regina's persecutor. First, in being the king’s daughter. Second, in telling Cora about Daniel. Regina hadn't been able to save Daniel, not after Cora took his heart. Somehow, this time, she would find a way to spare the ones she loved - not through the imp's ugly and brutal curse, which would not spare its victim - but somehow.  

Regina had no reason to kill Snow, not now that she was reduced to irrelevance. Irrelevant or not, she was an irritant. “Never visit this room, Snow.” Her lip curled in distaste at saying the girl’s name. “I do not want to see you again, but if I must it should be an accident. Now go.”

Snow sniffled and nodded. Before she left, she turned. “I - I wanted to see my brothers. We are all fatherless now. They won't know him, but - I will tell them about him. They'll know what kind of father they had, and how he will _always_ believe in them. And I hoped - I thought we could mourn together, mother.”

“I am not your mother.” It was enough to finally drive the girl away.

* * *

When Regina returned to her own chambers, it was late that night. A guard was standing outside her chambers, sloppy, arms crossed over her chest and face obscured by a helm with a broad lip.

It was Emma, of course. Regina would recognize that slouch anywhere. Emma was trying to sleep on her feet, or trying to avoid the fact that the king was four days buried and she was posted outside the chambers that had seen nightly adulteration for nearly a year before his death. Would it be a disservice to the king’s memory for this to be the first night since the birth of their sons that Regina took Emma to bed? Or would it somehow be appropriate, given that the king had evidently been as aware of their activities as the staff?

“Do you plan to hide behind that ridiculous hat?” she asked Emma, and Emma jumped, meeting Regina's eyes and immediately looking away.

“My queen,” Emma said, nearly bowing. “Do not let me delay you in your rest.”

“Don't be…” Regina took the helm off Emma. “Don't be like this,” she finished, swallowing.

“I am not doing anything,” Emma said. Her voice was solemn, deep in her throat, and her eyes were wide.

Regina opened her door and took Emma's hand, drawing her through it. The lamps were still lit, filling her chambers with a golden light that offset the colorlessness of her chosen decorations. The light was like the one Emma left in Regina's heart, setting white and black aglow, turning everything to gold.

Regina put her hands on Emma's shoulders, but Emma’s eyes dropped and Regina instead turned, offering the strings of her girdle to Emma.

“I could call Dana,” Regina's maidservant. “But will you just do it?”

There was a long pause, and then Emma's hands fell on her back and she was tugging at the strings, loosening the contraption. It was a comfortable rhythm, a ritual that they could both fall back on.

“I do not know if I should leave the castle.”

 _“Leave?_ Do not leave, Emma,” Regina said, turning partway around, hoping to hold Emma tightly against her chest as she had held her sons all day. They were the same, weren't they? Emma was as harmless and devoted as their children. Emma was _hers._

Emma yanked the strings and pushed Regina's shoulder away, and Regina hissed with the violence of the motion and turned back, away from Emma again.

“It seems that I am unsafe here.” Emma took a deep breath. “They told me the poison you used. I knew that you killed the king, but I never imagined in a thousand years that you would do that to me.”

“I saved you, Emma. If I had wanted you dead I would have destroyed the vial. I planted it in the maid’s room. Your guards simply missed it in their search for evidence. They are to blame, not me. I would never -”

“And your pick of the poison was also accidental? Do not pretend with me, Regina.”

“You are safe here, Emma. I promise. I will protect you from - from everything.”

“But not yourself.”

 _You bedded the serving girl,_ Regina thought, but the thought had lost its fury. “Now that the king is dead, I will - we can eat together. We can live openly, you as my paramour. You will live as a - a princess. I want to share everything with you.”

Emma had finished loosening the strings, and she worked the girdle over Regina's head. Under, the fabric of the underdress was wrinkled and thin. Emma liked to put her hands on Regina's waist and press her breasts against Regina's back once they had removed the girdle, and Regina was so used to the habit that she arched her back into a touch that didn't come.

“You can't leave, Emma. Please.” Regina turned, and Emma was standing there, her hands loose at her sides. Regina put her hands flat on Emma's chest, looking into Emma's eyes. “You have to stay. You're the only thing that can stop the prophecy. You promised me that you would stop it.” For the first time that day, tears filled Regina's eyes. “We need you. If you will not stay for me, stay for our boys.”

Emma's eyes caressed Regina's face. The heat of the stare made it as intense as if Emma had reached out and touched Regina's cheeks, her jaw and her lips. Emma said, “If I stay here, I will remain your lover, and I do not know if I want that.”

Regina's heart stuttered in her chest. “You desire me no longer?” Maybe that was why they hadn't slept together yet. Emma had lost her appetite for Regina.

The potion. There was still one left, from before. If she dosed Emma… “I would not force you to love me,” Regina whispered, to herself as much as Emma.

But Emma heard it like it was meant for her ears. “That is not what I mean,” Emma said. “It is just that I do not think I can stay away.”

“Then do not.” Regina put her hands tentatively around Emma's waist, and Emma’s lips brushed her cheek.

Regina turned her face up to Emma's, and they were kissing, lips crashing together. Emma did not restrain her touch, and they were both gasping when they separated, although their bodies stayed still, barely touching. Emma's eyes showed a wild recklessness. Regina could at least be secure in Emma's desire. Her hands were shaking where they fell on Regina's shoulders, and she looked down at Regina's breasts where they were revealed by the underdress, devouring the swell and softness. Her gaze was hotter than her touch, the deliberation that tempered this interaction far more erotic than adolescent pawing. But Emma was almost pulling away from Regina again.

“Please, Emma,” Regina whispered. “I would be lost without you.”

“But even with me, you choose the darkest path,” Emma said. “Why can't you see that the darkness will destroy us? You have to chose me. Not this black magic. Not murder, not the betrayal of those who have only called you friend.”

Regina considered telling Emma that she had no choice. She couldn't live with Leopold, and she could not escape him. She couldn't allow Snow to take the throne, not when Snow was so weak and sniveling, and capable of such betrayal.

As Emma was. When had Emma's opinion become more important than Regina's plan? Emma was just Regina's tool. She was not the object of Regina's plan - just the means by which Regina would achieve her goals. It didn't feel like that, not when Regina could now sleep only with Emma's arms around her. Not with the bright happiness that erupted in Regina's heart at Emma's smile, and not when Regina found herself searching her tiny sons’ faces for Emma's features.

And despite Emma's disapproval of Regina's methods, she was still here. Her hands were still hot on Regina's shoulders. Her eyes stripped Regina to the skin without ever touching her. She would stay.

“I did not know that you loved me,” Regina told Emma. “I did not think - think that you could love me, not with what I have done to you, keeping you as my - my -”

“Your pet,” Emma said, her voice growling. “I have loved you. Now I don't know whether my hate is greater, with your murder of the king and framing me, and then the maid, who has died in _your_ stead.”

“Please, Emma. What you told me in the jail… that was the first time I believed that you have loved me at all. Now I can see a future that is so much brighter than anything I have imagined before. But I would have nothing without you here.”

Emma frowned at Regina, and if the situation was less serious Regina would have laughed at the look. Emma was like a lion with her golden mane, and the litheness and grace that Regina could clearly see would be deadly on the battlefield. It was no wonder she had been hired to the guard as the second in command, recruited straight from the neighboring kingdom in strategic diplomacy that was uncharacteristically cunning for the late king. But she was also physically slender, nearly short, and her wits were mainly reactive. Emma was perpetually hunted, always defensive. She couldn't see the big picture. She couldn't see how the tapestry of fate unfolded, and the small pressure points that could so easily be manipulated. She barrelled through life, brazen and certain, and because of that she was a playing piece and not a player.

But she could be Regina's playing piece. So instead of laughing with adoration at Emma's frown, Regina looked seriously at Emma. She smoothed the frown with her thumb, and placed one small kiss on the side of Emma's mouth. Emma turned her face and met the kiss, and Regina forgot everything but Emma's lips, Emma's hands as they finally found the place on Regina's waist, and then the bottom of Regina's breasts, still heavy in the aftermath of pregnancy. Her touch was light but deliberate, with that same restrained wildness Regina had seen in her eyes a few minutes before.

Regina pulled at her gently, leading her to bed, not distracting her focus by returning her touches except softly. Emma would dive with eagerness into Regina, and in the process of taking Regina she would rediscover the trust that Regina had broken. In the meantime Regina would enjoy giving herself over to Emma's power.

But with Emma’s face buried in her neck and her hand behind Regina's back pulling her hair, the other hand coaxing Regina into heaven, it didn't feel like it was Regina setting the rules. It felt like she had surrendered everything in a game Regina hadn't even known that she was playing. It felt like the lies that she had given Emma were eclipsed somehow by a truth Regina was powerless against.

* * *

Five years passed. It was nearly as much time as Regina had spent as Leopold's wife, longer even than she had loved Daniel. It was long enough that Emma's small flaws - her slovenly way about organizing her belongings, her insistence upon constantly discarding her possessions, her resistance to receiving gifts, her habit of wolfing food down like it would sprout wings and fly away if she did not dispatch it immediately - Emma's flaws turned from the focus of Regina's rapt fascination to the focus of frustration, and then faded in Regina's attention, becoming just Emma.

Just before the boys’ first birthday, Regina's father moved to the late Leopold's castle. His health was declining, of a disease that Regina could not diagnose or cure. He made the decision that spending time with his heir, Emmett, would be a more valuable use of his remaining years than directly working in his own land. It would be a mistake - the administrator he assigned would be exposed for corruption when the boys turned five - but by then it would be too late in his illness for him to move back. Soon thereafter, it wouldn't matter at all.

Regina and Emma left Henry with the boys to visit King George when they turned three. It was a long journey, and Regina and Emma were gone nearly two months. Emma rode beside Regina for the trip, still dressed as a guardsman. When they arrived, the staff was not surprised to find Emma's bedchambers empty. But King George himself ignored her entirely, although she stood as Regina's attendant. The talks ranged from trade to, inevitably, marriage. There King George made his intentions clear. “Whatever happens in your separate bedchambers is your own business. With three sons there would be no need of an heir.” What was less clear was whether he was offering himself, or his young son James, whose face was covered in peach fuzz. He was as young as Snow.

Marriage wasn't an option, although Regina knew why he asked for it. To unite their kingdoms would benefit only King George, in his poverty. Leopold's kingdom was more than stable, and Regina's rule did nothing but increase the kingdom’s power and prominence. Moreover, Regina did not need another blond in her life.

Everyone knew the truth of Emma's station, although nobody seemed to be able to figure out how to treat her for it. More than a peasant, but not a queen. A paramour, as Regina had promised her.

When the boys turned four, Emma gifted them each with a small wooden sword. The swords were smooth, finished wood, and matched in every meaningful way the practice sword that the guardsmen used in their exercises. Emma had them line up and follow her movements, and when Emmett broke the line she scooped him up in a shower of kisses and scolding.

The wet nurses’ boys were jealous, and soon they had practice swords of their own. Brawls of tiny arms and legs erupted, which nobody seemed to be anxious about except for Regina, who watched Henry’s red, Emmett's blue, and Daniel’s green with anxiety. She wouldn't take Emma's gift away, but she would at least monitor them carefully.

When, inevitably, one of the boys were hurt, she ran to him. It was Henry, whose skull Emmett's sword had attempted to crack. Regina scooped Henry up and cupped his tear-stained face. She healed the small scrape on his head and then looked up at Emmett. Emmett's face was white. He'd dropped his sword and was looking like he, too, might cry.

She pulled him into her arms. “You mustn't hurt your brother,” Regina told Emmett. “Henry is so important to me. And you are so important, too. Do you understand, my little ones?”

They both nodded, snot-encrusted and dirty, looking for all the world like small puppies, brown-eyed and desperate for Regina's approval.

The next morning, Regina found Emma trying to train them again. She bit back her fear and did not stop her. Emma had said she would prevent their fate, so Regina would let her do what she thought she must. Regina had given up control of that situation long ago. It was Emma who could fight fate. All Regina had was a curse, the darkest curse. A curse she could never afford to cast.

And then, one day not long thereafter, everything changed. It was the orphan Snow White. Emma and Regina had camped on the first night of their journey to the farthest reaches of their kingdom, tracking the rumor of a stray ogre, when a messenger from the castle told them that Snow had once again run away.

Emma insisted upon leading the search party, and rather than calling the ogre hunt off, Regina snapped at her and continued the journey without her. “If we stop necessary efforts every time that girl runs away, the kingdom will fall apart. If it were up to me, I would let her go. Left alone she will die, like the stray dog that she is so desperate to become.”

When Regina returned to the castle, Emma had not yet returned. She hadn't sent word, either. Regina became frantic. She used Henry's blood to trace her, finding her in the middle of the sea. Alive, but very, very far away.

And then the letter finally arrived. It was cryptic, but Regina could recognize Emma's sloppy scrawl anywhere. What was equally obvious was that she had help from someone with a far better education than her own, because every word was spelled correctly.

_I have found Snow. With the guardsman Graham, I am accompanying her to a land in which we will find safety. Do not expect our return._

It was a long moment before Regina remembered Graham. The guardsman whose heart she had taken so long ago. The guardsman who had retrieved the maid Molly for her.

All that Regina could think was, what unfortunate luck, that he had defied her, that he remembered everything. She was numb.

So Emma would leave, if she knew everything that Regina had done. Emma did not need to say it in the letter. The murder of the maid would be the end of them. An act that Regina had committed so long ago that she couldn't even remember the girl's face. Five years and three sons, and Emma would leave her without even giving her a chance to explain.

To explain. Explain what? At the time she had felt fully justified. And she had thought Leopold, too, deserved to die. She had ground Snow under her heel as much as Emma allowed, but five years had changed everything.

Just as Emma finding out about the murder of her lover and their unborn child had changed everything for Emma. Perhaps Emma could find some explanation in her heart for Leopold, and the scullery maid. Somehow this murder, the first, would be her undoing.

Regina had once thought Emma weak, but the events of the years since they'd first met had galvanized Emma. Regina had turned Emma against herself. And Emma was the ally that Regina needed the most.

Finally Regina wrote back. She filled pages. The heart of what she said was: _Emma, you asked me to choose you over darkness. In these years with you, I have. But without you, I can't find my way. I have already lost the sense I had, and now I think it must have been you. I have not learned goodness yet. You must come back, before I do something else that I can't come back from._

Regina waited for months, watching her father continue to decline. Finally the reply came. Again, it was short.

_I thought you'd changed. You've now said that you can't. Why would I willingly come back to you? Do whatever evil magic you have planned, Regina. Good will still win. Good will always win._


	5. Chapter 5

The Mercedes was large enough for three car seats, which meant it was large enough for the Mills household. When Regina woke up in the mansion for the very first time, she thought that the house lacked even the most basic amenities. Where would the nurses and their sons sleep? When she found the nurses in the town, she discovered that the curse had given them their own homes, husbands, and jobs. They wouldn't help Regina with her three delightful and incessant centrifuges of hunger and energy, and so Regina would need to learn a number of things.

She had to learn what faucets were, exactly. Her sons showed her how to twist the handle, releasing a flow of water that was driven by the mechanisms of a world far different from their own. The workings of an oven were beyond her, until she invited the only royal-blooded and tolerable person in the town into her home to train her. Kathryn was younger than Regina, but the curse had granted her memories that allowed her to navigate this world. The world without magic. Kathryn was married to King George's son, although they had not had the ceremony in either the Enchanted Forest, or this land. The arrangement made sense, unlike nearly every other arrangement here.

Regina had not expected it, but the curse had not only transported the residents of the Enchanted Forest. It had replaced their memories, too, turning them into entirely new people. All but Regina. Her boys weren't noticeably different, but Rumplestiltskin was here, looking and acting like a normal man, except that he had a seemingly endless collection of artifacts. Now useless, in _this_ land.

Snow was not here. Neither was that treacherous guardsman, although Regina still had his heart, locked in her vault. Her vault had followed her here, and eventually she found it, in the graveyard and hidden beside her father’s coffin.

But Emma Swan? The other treacherous guardsman? She _was_ here. She was the town’s sheriff. When Regina first saw her she nearly fell over. Regina was walking with the most ridiculous stroller down the main street. The stroller happened to be empty at the time, and her sons scattered to the wind. The sheriff was turned away, locking the door to her office, but Regina recognized the hair, the hands, the scrambling.

Daniel was there when Emma turned around, studying her with his hands stuck in his tiny pockets. “Hey, kid,” Regina could hear her say. “Henry, right?”

“My name is Daniel,” Daniel told her, holding up his wrist, which had a green watch wrapped around it. “Green, see? It's okay.”

Emma looked up, and her eyes met Regina's. Confusion crossed her face, and then her eyes dropped. Henry and Emmett stood on either side of the stroller. “There are three of them?”

Regina didn't try to open her mouth. Emma's question was rhetorical, in any case. She pulled Henry's shoulder and he moved out of the way of the stroller as Regina turned directly around and walked away from Emma. She trusted Daniel to follow, and he did catch up to them before they crossed the street.

“Who's that?” Henry was asking, and Emmett chimed in, repeating the question.

“Emma Swan,” Regina finally said. “The sheriff of this town.”

Two weeks in this new land were not long enough for Regina to acclimate herself to the idea that Emma would never again be a part of their lives. Nearly six months in their castle hadn't been enough, either. If Regina had imagined that the curse gave them new memories and new roles, and that _Emma_ was here, her longing for Emma would have nearly been great enough to drive her to cast the curse absent any other motivation. Because if Emma was here she would be Regina's wife. The rest had their happy, nuclear families, didn't they? The rest were paired with their fated love. How did Regina wake without Emma beside her?

But Emma was also responsible for this curse. She had driven Regina to it - to the sacrifice of Regina's father, to a future that she had never imagined. She'd hoped that Henry would become king. In this land Henry was just the identical triplet with the blue shirt on. Despite that, Regina could not bring herself to regret casting the curse. Rumplestiltskin had said that they would be safe here.

But Regina would not have been able to forgive Emma for it. It was likely a blessing that the curse hadn't given Emma back to Regina, because while this Emma might smile softly at little Daniel, in truth she had abandoned them all. To have Emma trapped in a life she hadn't chosen... that might have been tolerable. It was a life she deserved, and the rest were trapped, too. But Regina was _not_ trapped, and even now, she looked down at her hands and they were white gripping the stroller's handle. When they were first lovers, Regina strangled Emma out of frustration, to exert her power over Emma. After, Regina strangled her because Emma liked it. Now, Regina would strangle Emma to death, and feel no regret at her passing.

Or would she love Emma then? Would the force of habit be too great, and Regina's hand slip under rough jeans, past the black belt, and into the hot and moist crux of Emma's body? Would intended murder end in love? Should Regina go back to Emma, ask her to coffee tomorrow morning during the boys’ kindergarten, and take her home as quickly as she could? This was a new beginning, for everyone. It could be a new beginning for them.

When they reached the house, Regina sat on the porch and buried her face in her hands. Daniel sat by her side, while Emmett ran to the bathroom and Henry followed him into the house. Daniel put his hand on her knee, and she put her hand on his. The small gesture from him had lightened her heart, and when Henry arrived with a glass of lemonade, she smiled a little at them both.

“Are you mad?” Henry asked her, wrinkling his nose at her.

Daniel was shaking his head. “Leave her alone, Henry,” he said.

“But you're not mad, right?”

Regina wondered what small offense he had committed that he was so desperate to assure himself was not responsible for her distress. “I'm not angry, Henry,” she said, sighing. “I am anxious because tomorrow is Monday, and you are all going to school, and that is my first day back from the short vacation I took from _my_ work.”

Daniel leaned against her arm, and Regina wrapped her arm around him. “I don't want to go to school,” he told her forlornly.

Henry sat on her other side. He said, “Can't we stay home?”

Regina put her arm around him, too. “Boys, everybody has a job. My job is to be the mayor. Your job is to go to school and be a shining example to the other children. You are -” _princes,_ the whisper of well-worn words passed her lips. “How will the other children go to school if you don't? How will you learn to read, and write? You have to go.”

“It's not fun,” Henry persisted.

“I promise you, it is not as bad as you think,” Regina chuckled. And then she remembered. Emma was sheriff. Tomorrow she had a meeting with the sheriff. Emma doubtless had a lifetime of memories of these meetings, but to Regina it would be the first time. Regina would need to spend months figuring out what everyone else already knew. What did a sheriff do, exactly? And the staff attorney? The director of planning? It would be a long few years.

Without Emma. Emma had chosen her path, and Regina would need to respect her decision. If Regina dated this version of her - if Regina proposed marriage, if she built the life that the curse had failed to build for her - it would only happen because Emma did not have her memories. She didn't remember the serving girl Molly or the unborn child Regina had killed, and she never would remember. She didn't know that Regina had cast this dark curse upon the heart of her dead father.

It did not mean that Regina wouldn't look her up online and stare for hours at meaningless Facebook posts. It didn't mean that Regina wouldn't download photos of Emma onto her phone, and flip through them during pauses at work. Emma laughing. Emma frozen, poised over a fork, about to eat some cake. Smiling at the person on the other side of the camera. A friend, maybe. Maybe her husband, mustachioed and nearly dapper. She hadn't taken his name, under the curse. Jones.

* * *

Three car seats turned into three pairs of soccer cleats, and then Regina picked the boys up at their first soccer practice and the coach was the sheriff.

“Hey,” the girl said, voice husky. She couldn't have been unaware of how Regina avoided her, as autumn turned to winter, turned to spring, turned to summer. Endless longing nights, bittersweet with remembering what was now long lost.

But Emma stuck her hands in her pockets and stood beside Regina as the rest of the parents picked up their kids. Henry, Emmett, and Daniel were enthusiastically brawling, the soccer ball a blur between them. They'd been practicing ever since their teacher had told them that summer school would have soccer.

But Emma Swan was looking at Regina with something in her eye, like she knew, or suspected, everything. Or maybe it was Regina’s paranoia, or the lighting. The sky was darkening and the floodlights on the field barely illuminated half of Emma's face. “They're awesome kids. I… I've got to say I was hoping they would join. I've been helping out at the after school care and they're always so quiet. They don't talk to the other boys that much, you know, but you can tell they have a - that they're happy anyway. But like this, wow.” Emma gestured at the mass of bodies before them. “They're gonna be killer on the field.”

“They have been very excited to start,” Regina said quietly. She knew Emma was helping out at after school care. She'd just started - right after the curse was cast. It wasn't a hand she was dealt, but Emma had sought it out. Sought her sons out? “I am hoping it helps them to connect with the other boys.”

“Before you know it they'll be out prowling the town with three other guys and you'll be sorry you hoped that,” Emma joked. Regina found herself responding to the twinkling in Emma's eyes, smiling in return. She was so beautiful.

“Perhaps,” Regina just said, but the silence went on too long. Regina's heart trembled with their closeness. Just the two of them, here on the field, watching their sons scramble around after a ball that perpetually evaded them. Regina could not stop her eyes from hungrily devouring Emma. How different this was, from Leopold's castle, from the life they had built together after his passing. How very much the same.

Emma had celebrated her thirtieth birthday just a few weeks before, and Regina captured every picture that was posted online, in real time - or so it seemed. She had looked carefully for the pirate, perhaps reflected in a glass, but he was certainly not at the event.

And Emma had wormed her way into their sons’ lives, without any of them being the wiser. Without Regina trying, the story that the curse had built had shifted and slid toward what Regina herself would have wanted. The boys must have been pleased to find out that it was Emma coaching them. They talked about her enough as it was, the blonde that always helped them after school, like she was their only teacher, like they thought she was a friend.

And then Emma said, “I know we work together, but I have been wanting to say this for a long time and I think I'm just gonna do it. Um.” Emma paused, and Regina took the opportunity before it was gone.

“Nothing good ever comes of a question preceded by _that_ , Sheriff Swan. I suggest you keep whatever secret you've been concealing before it makes you say something you'll regret.”

Emma squinted her eyes and nodded, and Regina marched to the boys and brought them to the car without a second glance. The next day, she waited in the car for the boys. Was she hiding from Emma? Maybe.

Would Emma have asked her to dinner? Was she embarking on what was surely a divorce because she was miserable in marriage, or because she felt herself drawn, not only toward their boys, but toward Regina, too? And who was Regina to defy what Emma clearly wanted? What Emma thought she wanted?

The next day, she got out of the car. Maybe Thursday was the day for new beginnings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure what's stopped this fic but here's where I am, and here I may stay. Please, if you feel inspired or interested in the ending to this story, feel free to just go ahead and write it! It occurs to me that a few of the SwanQueen Week http://swanqueenweek.tumblr.com prompts are very relevant to the possible end to this story.
> 
> I am unspeakably grateful for the immense response to this. I never expected such enthusiasm, and I'm so happy to have gotten  
> it! This is such a great community and I love these ladies so, so much! Cheers.


	6. Chapter 6

It wasn't until Regina was holding Emma Swan’s hair back as she vomited into the unforgiving Atlantic that she suspected any foul play.

The summer had been better than expected, in a number of ways. Emma's prediction of teenage prowling notwithstanding, summer soccer did lead to some tentative friendships, which were further solidified in this summer school prom aboard a dual-level cruise ship. Regina had not yet murdered Emma, which was progress in its own right. Especially when Emma kept appearing uninvited in the periphery of Regina's life.

Their weekly briefs at Regina's office were one thing. In those meetings Emma was appropriately formal and adequately prepared.

Every night, Regina picked the boys up from practice and lingered, careful not to press, embarrassingly grateful for the routine. Emma would gossip happily to Regina, report on the boys’ progress, disclose her plans for the league, and Regina would mostly listen, learning this new Emma, wondering how she would endure the school year without these daily doses of Emma. She hadn't known that the boys would continue soccer, and that she'd be picking them up from Emma every Tuesday and Thursday until the day the curse broke.

It was the unscheduled appearances that incited her suspicions. Grocery shopping, spurred by Emmett's sudden craving for kale after soccer. At the store Emma was wan, and her cart was filled with bottles of beer, which she attempted in a fit of embarrassment to conceal using a box of tampons and toilet paper, but which were clearly visible through the sides of the cart. There was a set of tools, which Emma explained was intended to replace the screwdriver she'd broken while constructing a bed frame. Regina didn't ask, but that meant her temporary arrangement with Ruby had ended. Had she found a new roommate, or moved into a new place of residence? How much could Regina ask Gold, the real estate mogul, without giving him ammunition against her?

Regina could not ascertain whether the imp had retained his memories, although it was unfathomable that he had not. He was here for a purpose - that much was clear. Otherwise he would not have given Regina this curse.

“Coach!” the boys clamoured at Granny's, and before Regina knew it she was swept along in the rush of pre-adolescent enthusiasm to the table where Emma was sitting. The pirate was facing the door, his face sulky, but when Emma turned to the boys she was nothing but smiles.

It was easy for Regina to pretend that this was Emma, her Emma, who’d never had romantic interest in a man in her life. When she saw Emma with Jones, though, it was everything Regina could do not to pluck out his heart and emulsify it on the spot. Although she couldn't, not here.

How was it possible that a man hurt Emma like this? The curse had turned everyone's lives upside down. Was this hell Regina had constructed - was hell the life that each of the town’s residents endured, and Regina could only see Emma's pain - and her own pain, reflected in her love's unknowing eyes?

As the mayor, Regina had to attend the cruise. Emma probably did not, but she was there anyway, face green with seasickness within ten minutes of boarding.

Regina could have predicted it. Emma had never had sea legs - in fact, a few years ago she'd entirely sworn off sailing, a mixed blessing for Regina. On one hand, it'd meant that her cabin was not suffused with the cloying scent of partially digested sardines and crackers during her month-long journeys to nearby kingdoms. On the other, without Emma and their sons, the journeys turned into hazy bouts of alcoholism for Regina, the sense of freedom insufficient to repress her desolation.

Emma combatted her nausea on the cruise ship by pounding rum and cokes, and Regina kept escaping her, before making the circuit of the boat and returning, drawn like a magnet, to the sheriff again. Emma had claimed the corner closest to the mini-bar, and became successively drunker, until she'd confessed that she came because Regina's boys had begged her to go, _because Regina would be there._ The boys were lost in the depths of the ship, and Emma looked like she wasn't drunk enough that she didn't know what she'd said.

But as Regina bent partially over the rail with Emma, watching her spew rum and coke all over the side of the ship, she put the pieces together. Emma was just as much a victim as Regina was. Henry, Emmett, and Daniel had formed an understanding, however infant, of what was between Emma and Regina. And with a shocking level of subtlety, rather than confronting either of them about it, the boys were maneuvering them together. Or… they were fighting the fate the curse had written for their family, in their own confused manner.

When Emma finally stopped vomiting over the rail, she straightened, and Regina caught her hands before she could run, knowing her look of fear, and knowing what Emma did when she was afraid.

Emma’s hands were warm on Regina's, her thumb softly brushing the back of Regina's palm. Regina closed her eyes against the fluttering of her traitorous heart.

She opened her eyes and followed Emma's gaze to their intertwined fingers. Emma was frowning, and Regina opened her mouth to ask why. Before she could, Emma said, “I heard you were engaged.”

She was talking about the ring, silver with a twining pattern. The ring Emma had given her on one knee, years ago. _I know this can't mean - what I wish it could,_ Emma had told her. _And I know you'll never be mine. But would you wear it? And remember that you are and will always be my world, the beginning and end to each of my journeys, my everything._

Regina had told her that she _was_ hers, and would always be. She'd never taken it off, except to cast the curse. After checking her sons in their beds, it was the first thing Regina had looked for in the house, nearly frantic with the possibility of having lost it.

It had come here with her. And yes, she'd told Kathryn it was an engagement ring. What she'd really meant was that she was unavailable, although it suddenly seemed like that wasn't what she meant at all. Hadn't Emma's intention been to symbolize their union? Truly it was their wedding ring, more appropriately placed on her left hand, as was the custom in this world.

Despite herself, she caught Emma's face and turned it up to hers. Emma's eyes were clear and piercing, now. “You heard wrong,” Regina whispered, and Emma flushed even deeper red. Their faces were close enough that Regina could smell the hint of vomit on Emma's breath.

“Sorry,” Emma said, pulling away, probably realizing the same thing. “I'm really gross right now. This isn't my best, you know…” She trailed off. “Hey, is there any time that we could, I don't know, grab coffee, or dinner? My - my treat?” Her eyes were wide and hopeful, although her hand was suddenly clammy in Regina's.

“Are you asking me on _a date?”_ Regina said, injecting her voice with as much malice as she could muster.

Emma shrank away from the tone, but she did come back with, “Yeah. I am. I - I'd like to date you, Regina Mills, if you'd let me.”

“I don't think so,” Regina said, and Emma stepped away.

“Please let me know if you change your mind,” Emma whispered, and nearly bowed in her retreat.

* * *

_Daniel broke his leg. Joanna's watching the rest of the kids. I'm at the hospital._

Thankfully, Emma rarely texted. When she did, it was always an urgent matter, one Emma thought Regina would want to be aware of, or something Emma needed Regina's help with. Just to see her name on the locked screen always caused Regina's hands to shake, her stomach to clench.

Daniel was in the hospital. Regina turned off the oven and was in the car instantly, realizing only when she was four blocks from the hospital that she'd forgotten her purse at home. It didn't matter.

The boys had continued soccer, staying at school late, although Regina had stopped lingering after practice ended. As the summer turned to fall, night began to encroach upon soccer, and Regina had not feared that the darkness would be a hazard, but Daniel broke his leg and Regina was utterly unprepared for it, for the reminder of mortality. They were supposed to be safe here. Otherwise, why would Regina endure this world at all? She remembered the trigger, hidden under the clock tower - the trigger that would return them to the Enchanted Forest, back to the castle, back _home._

When she arrived they'd already drugged him unconscious and set the leg. Emma was standing over his hospital bed morosely.

Regina knew the look well. Emma only wore it when she'd done something she knew was wrong.

 _“What_ did you do?” Regina hissed at her when she'd released the nurse from her full interrogation.

Emma looked up at her, alarmed. “I didn't!” she protested.

Regina's rage was bubbling over. She circled the bed and slapped Emma, hard.

Emma came up from the slap with eyes watering and cheeks flushed. It was an immediate scene, which Regina didn't care about. So she'd slapped the soccer coach, who evidently had nothing better to do than accompany a student to the hospital. Let them think their worst.

Emma did care what the hospital staff thought. She took Regina's hand and drew her through a closed door into what appeared to be a large supply closet.

Regina took Emma's collar up in one fist. “Hey, really, Madam Mayor,” Emma said, but she was bristling and ready to fight.

“What did you do?” Regina repeated. “Why was he hurt? Did you have them climbing or - or fighting,” she struggled to think of a reason Daniel might have been hurt.

“Jesus, no, they were just playing a game,” Emma said. She grabbed Regina's wrist and tried to yank it away. “Let go of me, you psychotic -”

“I know it was your fault. You promised me,” Regina started, and then she couldn't finish. Emma had promised her so much.

A sob escaped Regina's throat, and Emma softened. She put her arms around Regina's waist. “Hey, it's all right, Regina,” Emma said seriously. “It's just a broken leg. I've broken like, four bones. He'll be fine.”

It was almost a hug. The smell of Emma was unbearable. Regina flattened her fist on Emma and wrapped her other arm around Emma's back. And then it _was_ a hug, and Regina was swept away in a torrent of Emma. Just Emma.

She was panting, and Emma was nuzzling her hair, and then pulling away but just enough that their noses could touch. Regina could drown in Emma's breath. Her lips were so close that Regina's mouth tingled. To touch, to love. Emma, and only Emma.

Regina turned her face just as Emma moved to kiss her, and before Emma could pull away she was kissing the side of Emma's mouth, along Emma's jaw, down Emma's neck, nipping when she reached her shoulder. Her hands were suddenly greedy, pulling the tails of Emma's shirt out and caressing her stomach, up her back, and Emma's skin rippled and turned to gooseflesh under Regina's nails.

Emma tried to kiss her again, and Regina bent to her stomach, kissing her bare skin while she unfastened her belt. This wasn't true love. But it was a curse, and it was some kind of love, and Regina could not risk losing everything she'd sacrificed so much to attain for a fling with the memory-wiped clone of her ex. If they broke the curse, they might be trapped here with no means of escape. At least now they had the trigger.

“Woah,” Emma breathed, and Regina looked up to find Emma watching with eyes dark and wide, searching.

Regina paused. “Is this not what you want?” she asked. She'd taken Emma their first time without asking what Emma wanted. She wouldn't make that mistake again.

But Emma just bit her lip and nodded. “What is it?” Emma asked. Maybe words she would have asked the first time, if Regina had cared to listen.

“Nothing,” Regina growled. She yanked down Emma's pants and pulled off one shoe to take the leg off. She knew what exactly would make Emma come, and she'd waste no more time than this endless year had already stolen from her.

She flung Emma's knee over her shoulder and buried her face between Emma's legs, starting with one long lick that made Emma whimper and touch her head, just softly.

She found Emma's entrance with her tongue and it was already slick and swollen. She licked the juices from Emma and then moved back to her clit, making slight circles that Emma followed gently, beginning to gasp.

“That's - what the - hell,” Emma managed. “Holy shit.” Obscenities, as usual, and as distasteful as they had ever been - although the selection had changed.

Regina considered telling her to shut her mouth, but she knew what would do that. She found Emma's entrance with one finger and let Emma gyrate into the pressure.

Emma moaned far too loudly. “Yes,” she panted. So Regina let the finger dip into her, loosely, and Emma squirmed. “Fuck,” Emma said, regaining some coherency in her frustration. She opened her legs wider and started thrusting. Regina followed the motion, enjoying how Emma's body grasped at her finger with each motion, and then she tired of it and clamped down on Emma's clit with her lips, at the same time hooking her finger into Emma.

Emma breathed out in a huff, her inside blossoming open to Regina, and Regina kept sucking as she pulled her finger partially out and added a second. Emma's body became a fountain, and Emma was finding it impossible to quietly take Regina. Emma had never been quiet when receiving. In this case it was unacceptable.

Regina stood and put one hand over Emma's mouth, enjoying the look of confused helplessness that Emma gave her. The angle was good, although Regina had to readjust her hand to maintain pressure on Emma's clit. Emma's body was good, too good to stop, too good to do anything but fuck. Their bodies were in lockstep, and Emma would come, and Regina didn't want her to come but couldn't stop driving into her. _Mine,_ she thought fiercely. Not the perpetually unshaven mascara abuser’s. Not Emma the Sheriff, or Coach Swan, or anything but Regina's own -

Regina kissed the back of her own hand as Emma's body clenched around her fingers. Emma's eyes stayed open, and Regina was the one who had to break the stare, to close her eyes and turn away as she drew out the last aftershocks with a soft touch to Emma's clit, withdrawing.

The moment faded quickly, taking the heat of their bodies and Regina's love, and her fury, and leaving only tears and smeared lipstick, and a Sheriff with one leg out of her pants and eyes that held everything that Regina wanted, and everything she couldn't let herself have.

“This was a mistake,” Regina whispered.

“No,” Emma said quickly. “Maybe not like this. But I - really like you. Like,” she breathed out. “I know - jeez - this is coming out wrong.” She started fumbling around her ankles, trying to turn the pants the right side out. “Can I take you out? Dinner? I'd - you are,” she said, and then she stood, giving up on her pants. “You are really, really the only person in town, that pretty much, like, exists for me. When you're there it's like everything fades away, and you're the only thing I can see. You keep shutting me down but Regina, there's got to be something here for you, too?” Her speech ended in a question, a hopeful note.

“You're wrong,” Regina said, forcing spite where she only ached. Her voice broke, a betrayal of the highest degree. To make up for it, she said, “You were easy but I won't let this happen again. Forget,” she commanded, with all the force that she would have poured into a spell, if there was magic here.

But Regina had never been able to induce forgetting, not until this worst of all curses. And when Emma looked at her, and said, “Please, Regina. I want to be - I think I could give you everything you need, if you'd let me try,” Regina had to turn away from her, leave the closet, and hold her sweet Daniel's hand until she could remember again that it was Emma that left them, Emma who had ruined it all, Emma who'd destroyed their happiness and brought this ambiguity of an ending, this endless twilight in the World Without Magic.


	7. Chapter 7

The curse had fabricated memories and every other necessary accommodation for the people of the town, excepting two.

Emma remembered when Regina appointed her sheriff, even if Regina herself did not - and there was a VHS tape in The Mirror's archives documenting the event, wherein a Regina and Emma who never existed stared deeply into each other's eyes as Emma accepted the title. Kathryn remembered being married, in the same gazebo that she remembered Regina marrying Daniel, years before, and there was a marriage certificate documenting both marriages, remembered and unremembered.

Finding that marriage certificate was the greatest shock this world had given Regina. So in this world, Henry, Emmett, and Daniel were not Leopold’s sons. They were long-dead Daniel’s. Daniel, who had been so good to her, whom her mother had despised. Who’d died in a midnight car crash with a drunk driver outside the town when their son was only a few months old.

She'd gathered the story slowly, absorbing it with a renewed sense of loss. She was grateful that she hadn't gotten these memories, although she found the fairy tale comforting, too. It was somehow a more believable story than the reality, and a far more wholesome one. If this had been her past, rather than her toxic marriage with Leopold, would she have descended into darkness at all? If, rather than calling Leopold husband for those years, she'd lived with Daniel instead?

She'd hated needing to call Leopold the father of her sons. She hated that she'd been forced to accept him in her bed. Even if he'd allowed her dalliance with Emma, he hadn't ignored her presence as his wife. Emma had somehow put aside her jealousy, and allowed the knowledge of her low station to supercede any sense of exclusivity with Regina. But Regina had feared and dreaded his visits to her bedchamber. Perhaps it hadn't meant he needed to die. But only after Leopold's death had Regina been able to take the life she'd wanted, for herself and her sons, and for Emma. She could not bring herself to regret his death.

And she and Emma had been fair and just rulers, hadn't they? If the town of Storybrooke and its residents remembered everything tomorrow, they would hate Regina for her curse, but not her rule. It was Emma who had called her evil. The peasants had barely noticed the change from King to Queen Regant. Hadn't they?

If Regina activated the trigger today and returned them all to their home, would the Enchanted Forest rise against her rule tomorrow?

And if Emma was at their head, championing Snow White, the rightful heir? It wouldn't be the worst thing Emma could do to Regina. Emma could take their sons away from her.

And Emma could break this curse, Regina knew with increasing certainty. If anyone could break it, it would be Emma. What was the right thing for Regina to do, given what had happened in the supply closet?

The best thing would have been not to have done it. But now that it was done, should Regina tell Emma the entire truth? Should she show Emma the trigger, and explain that Emma had left her, and why? Armed with that knowledge, could Emma then be in the position of making the decision to love Regina and could Regina then in good conscience accept her love?

If Emma asked Regina to restore their memories and return them to the Enchanted Forest, could Regina let go of the curse's safety? She would never have cast it, if Emma had stayed with her. If Emma promised that she had forgiven her - Emma had, after all, been transported here, and Snow and Graham had not - Emma must have returned to the Enchanted Forest, to be caught up in the spell…

But Emma could not promise that. She couldn't know what she would think, if she remembered everything.

And she wouldn't believe Regina. She would call the story false, and Regina truly had no proof of any of it. Regina could frame it as a hypothetical, but without the weight of realism Emma's answer would be meaningless.

It was too dangerous to risk. If Regina only knew what Emma was thinking, when she left - and if she had come back for Regina… _Do your worst,_ Emma had written to her, or something like it. _Good will always win._

Regina wished that good would just get on with winning. She wished that she was not in the position of deciding, for Emma, for everyone. The weight of her rule had never been so heavy as it was now, after she’d made the first real decision that had actually hurt her kingdom - to destroy her kingdom entirely.

Maybe she should just give up. She could activate the trigger, abdicate the throne to Snow, give their sons to Emma for Emma to save, and live the rest of her days in failure, and in peace.

She was so tired.

When they reached Augusta, she opened the car doors and her sons poured out into the uncertain midwinter sunlight. She helped Daniel put on his jacket, while Henry fastened his own and Emmett stubbornly insisted that he was not cold. Defiant and proud, as he had always been. She could almost hear his chirping explanation, “ _Emma's_ not cold, and you're not making _her_ wear a jacket.” He no longer remembered that he'd been called after his mother, but his attitude if anything had gotten worse.

The boys trailed after her, eyes wide as they took in the Capitol and its surrounding grounds. It was nothing compared to their home, but they did not remember Leopold's castle and it was the grandest thing they'd seen in this world.

They checked in at the Department of Health and Human Services and then waited for an hour. Emmett paced, ignoring his Nintendo in favor of checking each window of the waiting room in turn, an endless and dizzying circuit. Daniel and Henry played their traveling checkers set and then switched to a workbook with hidden figures in its pictures. Henry kept a tally of the number each of them found, and won every time until Daniel climbed into Regina’s arms and slept. Henry switched over to the Nintendo, and it was ten minutes before Emmett realized Henry was using Emmett’s Nintendo and nearly gave him a black eye over it.

And then they were finally admitted, and Regina reiterated the story she'd told seven times already. “I don't know why the nurse didn't file Emmett and Daniel’s birth certificates, but you can clearly see that they were all born the same day, and they are each my son. Look at them!”

The official studied them each over her glasses. They were without possible mistake identical. She hummed and finally, finally, Emmett and Daniel were documented.

They returned to Storybrooke with little fanfare, but something felt like it had changed. Lacking this world’s acknowledgement of two triplets, Regina's family's connection to it had seemed more tenuous. They still encountered people in the town who were befuddled by the appearance of the other two boys beside Henry, but it didn't mean Emmett and Daniel were any less real.

Regina had bought the boys their own beds and thrown out the guest bedroom’s furniture. She'd bought them backpacks, red and green, and tripled their wardrobes. They’d been assigned lockers at school and their numbers added to the end of the class list.

It had taken long enough, but getting their birth certificates from the state was the final linchpin. Regina put the trigger from her mind. This was their new home.

The next Wednesday, when Emma burst into her office ten minutes late, Regina smiled at her with tolerant familiarity and outlined her terms. “Nobody is to hear of our involvement. You will not let my children see anything. We will not get coffee, or dinner, and you will not stay the night. You will stop trying to kiss me.”

When Emma nodded slowly, Regina stood up from behind her desk and walked to her, studying her face, so precious, so solemn now. Her heart dipped, and a sour taste filled her mouth. “Would that be enough for you, Miss Swan? You won't want more? You will not -” her breath caught, and she breathed out quickly, before continuing. “You won't hurt?”

Emma’s brow furrowed. “I… guess not. But why?”

Regina kissed her forehead chastely, heart racing with exhilaration and despair. She smelled like love. Her skin was soft, and the invisible hairs on her forehead tickled Regina's lips. She resisted reaching out to draw their bodies together. She resisted the very urgent inspiration to take Emma to her private bathroom, prop her up on the sink, and unwrap her like a present.

“Come to my house at 108 Mifflin at 9pm tonight. As promptly as possible,” she added.

Emma came. Regina hauled her up the stairs, and slammed the door to her bedroom using Emma's body. She stripped her down and worshipped each forbidden inch of her, the swells of her breasts, their taut peaks, the smooth stomach, and then she let Emma unbutton her shirt and touch her body in turn, leading her to bed, watching Emma hovering over her with wide eyes and hands that nearly shook.

Emma touched her like she was everything. The gentleness hadn't changed from the Enchanted Forest. What had changed was Emma's look of surprise when Regina arched into the slightest stroke of her hand, hip to breast. Emma was so deliberate and slow that it was almost like she teased, except then Emma confessed that she'd never “been with” a woman before and Regina laughed so much that Emma withdrew, embarrassed and confused.

“I will show you,” Regina promised her. “Shall I start with you?”

“No, I want to touch you, but… are you - is this time?”

Regina hissed and took her hand, guiding it to her slick thighs. Emma touched the sensitive skin that led to her sex with a faint reverence.

“I have waited for you,” Regina breathed, imagining that they were back at their castle, and that Emma had returned to her of her own will. “Emma, I need you so badly. Please,” she rasped, and Emma nodded.

“Show me.”

Regina took Emma's hand and guided her fingers between her folds. Her hips spasmed as Emma's finger brushed her clit, and she pressed Emma's fingers harder there, circling, until Emma started miming the motion and Regina was bucking hard into her, both fully fulfilled and searching for penetration.

She wrapped her arms around Emma's head and pressed their foreheads together, moaning her satisfaction. “Emma,” she said. “Emma, I -” _love you,_ “need -” _you,_ “please.”

“What do you want?” Emma whispered, and Regina orgasmed spectacularly, throwing her head back, ears ringing.

Emma kept touching her, and when Regina finished, rather than letting Emma withdraw she thrust her hips into her hand. “Fuck me,” she demanded, and Emma fumbled, and Regina grabbed her hand again and pushed her finger inside. Once inside Emma rotated her hand and hooked her top wall as if she knew what she was doing, and Regina could feel her own juices drench their hands together as she opened up. “Harder. Two fingers.” Emma obliged, less hesitant and more wild. Emma’s hips rocked as she sank in, and then Regina bit her own hand not to cry out.

“You're a natural,” she managed, as Emma's hand rotated slightly and her finger engaged her clit.

Emma grinned up at her. “I've been imagining this forever. I keep dreaming…” she drifted off, and then she put her head down between Regina's breasts and fucked her carefully, deeply, engaging her body the way Emma always had, and Regina had learned from her. Regina closed her eyes and let her hands move around her back and head, and then she wrapped one leg around Emma's ass and locked her body tightly around her, tears dripping soundlessly onto her pillow.

Surely it wasn't right to lie to Emma. Regina hadn't known that the curse would replace the memories of the people she loved, but if she had she would still have cast it. If she'd known that she could have Emma back, she would have done anything. But to remove Emma's memories of - of everything, good and bad? Was this Emma at all?

What had Regina done?

“Emma,” Regina started, and then the room was filled with crackling purple light. Thunder snapped, and Emma pulled away, her hand stilling inside Regina, looking around at the room as each surface glowed.

The light faded slowly, and then Emma looked back down at Regina.


	8. Chapter 8

As the purple light in the sky faded to the orange of streetlights, Emma slowly pulled out her hand. 

A million excuses ran through Regina's mind. Mainly lies.  _ Rumplestiltskin cast the curse. I did this for Henry and Emmett and Daniel. My father was on his deathbed, and told me that he wished for his death to have meaning. I didn't know how to break this curse. I am its victim, too. I forgot everything. I thought you loved me. I am ready to forgive you, Emma, so please forgive me.  _

_ How could you leave us? How could you abandon your sons? _

“It's not even cloudy,” Emma said, frowning. 

Regina let out the breath she was holding in disbelief, and relief. For the first time she felt her fingers tingling.  _ Magic. _

“What do you mean?” she said carefully.

“Lightning. Purple lightning. Didn't you see it?” Emma looked down at Regina in concern. “It must have struck close by.”

Their phones rang at the same time, and Regina let herself believe it. It wasn't the curse breaking. It was - it must have been -

_ “Gold,”  _ she growled.  _ Magic _ . The first clue about what he was after here - the restoration of magic, in the world without it. Had he restored magic all over this world? She resisted the urge to magically clothe herself as she slipped off the bed, from under Emma’s befuddled and loose embrace.

“There was no thunder,” Emma said. “Why are you smiling so much?” She scrambled off the bed, reaching for Regina, and Regina leaned into her hands. Their bodies met delightfully.

And then Regina could hear the chirping voices of their sons in the hallway. Emma was facing away from the door, and Regina reached across the room with her magic to turn the lock on the door, keeping them out for a moment longer.

It wasn't over. She still had Emma. She clung to her with delirious delight. 

Their phones both stopped chiming, but Emma's started ringing again immediately, one call running into the next. 

Emma was looking at her, befuddled. “Did you say Gold? Like, Mr. Gold, did you mean? Do you think he had something to do with it?”

“We’d better do our jobs.” Regina told her, laughing. The knob on the door turned, and then one of the boys squawked and there was a loud thumping. 

“Mom?” The plaintive note sounded like Daniel.

“I will be right out.” Regina addressed the door, and then directed her attention to Emma, lowering her voice. “You'll leave through the window. There's a trellis that leads to the side yard. I will bring the boys to Ashley’s and call you when they're settled.” She paused, and then reached down and squeezed Emma's ass, eliciting a yelp. “Shh,” she said, not trying to suppress a smile. “I will see you in twenty minutes. Find me my monster, Emma Swan.”

Emma raised an eyebrow but smiled back at her. 

Ashley’s house was only four minutes away at a brisk walk, but it took fifteen minutes to comfort and clothe the boys. When Regina closed Ashley's door, she immediately transported herself to a nearby hilltop that overlooked the town, hoping to preempt the Sheriff's Department and identify any sources of unrest before Emma got there.

The whiff of magic was stronger here, in the forest. Regina reached for it, trying to trace its origin, but it seemed to be everywhere. 

She spun in place, feeling eyes on her, but she saw nothing through the trees. She conjured flames in her hand, delighting in the rush of magic in her veins, and threw the flames into the darkness, illuminating the shadows.

Nothing. She turned back around, intending to look more closely at the town.

Instead, her eyes found a patch of trees that shook and fell, soundless at this distance, on the far side of the town. It was a long moment and a eyesight-enhancing spell later that she was able to trace the disturbance, and his path through the town. 

It was Anton. He had burst through the roof of his house and waded through town to the forest, leaving destruction and shocked villagers - townspeople - peasants - citizens in his wake. 

Regina dialed Emma's phone with dread curdling in her gut. “Emma?” she said, before Emma picked up. The next ring was too long for Regina to wait.

How could she have been so stupid? The restoration of magic did not mean that the town  _ remembered. _ But it did mean that their true forms were restored.

Thank God that Anton was the only giant.

Regina remembered the giants. Bloodthirsty and cruel, with no concern for human life. A bullet would sting like the bite of a gnat. Emma had no chance. Was she there? She'd had enough time to find Anton. 

She'd had time enough to die. Regina disappeared in a puff of smoke, arriving in the middle of a war zone. 

The trees were on fire. Anton was on one knee, a river of blood flowing from his leg. Mulan and James were there, shouting and brandishing their handguns. James was in his nightgown, and Mulan was dressed to kill in sleek leather and chains. Her preferred law enforcement uniform. 

“Mercy!” Anton cried, his voice a shock wave through the forest. And then Regina saw Emma on his shoulder, her sword glinting in the flickering light of the forest fire, tight against his jugular. “I didn't do anything!”

“Lies!” James shouted, and fired his gun. Anton swung his arm, felling three more fir trees as he scrambled. His other hand fell on Emma, and Regina reached out with her magic, ready to transport herself to Emma and somehow convince her not to resist Regina's spell. To rescue Emma, but it was difficult enough to earn complacency from someone who knew what you were trying to do… 

A fountain of blood erupted from Anton’s neck, and he fell slowly, giving David and Mulan enough time to clear out. Emma looked like she was considering jumping off him before he landed, but the distance was too great. How had she climbed him to begin with?

_ Her sword?  _

Regina ran into the newly made clearing as if she had not been lurking, just as Anton’s body settled on the ground.

“Emma?” Regina said, and James and Mulan spun to face her.

“Madam Mayor,” James exclaimed, and Regina saw his knees buckle. He looked as surprised as she was, and caught himself before he was on his knee, clearing his throat.

“Are you all unhurt?” Regina asked, her eyes skimming over her deputies to the sheriff. Emma jumped from Anton's mountainous shoulder, landing on two feet. “Miss Swan, what on Earth is  _ that?” _ She looked at the sword, still in Emma's hand. She knew the damn thing well. It glowed faintly blue, signaling the presence of magic nearby. Regina's own.

“A fucking giant!” Emma burst out. “We’ve got to - no idea how he -” she sputtered into silence.

A cold weight settled in Regina's stomach. “We can't allow pictures. We will need to dispose of the body quietly.”

They each looked at her without expression. “Why?” Emma asked her after a long pause.

“I'm afraid - I'm afraid Anton will not be the last disturbance we should anticipate, after that… lightning. We can't have outsiders here. We should - we must protect Storybrooke.” Regina's mind was already running through the other magical creatures they might soon experience. The fairies, and Jiminy Cricket. But the most dangerous of them all was the man who'd started this all. The Dark One.

“What does that mean?” 

“Come with me,” Regina told them, with her most commanding tone. As she turned, she said, “You should wipe your sword, Miss Swan, before the blood dries.”

Emma looked down at the shimmering sword in her hands with a look of utter confusion. 

“It's glowing,” Mulan pointed out, as if it wasn't obvious. “Where did you get that, Emma?”

Emma shrugged with embarrassment. “I've always had it,” she said, wiping the blade on Anton’s shirt. “I was found - as a baby, with it. I guess I might store it in my car trunk?” 

“You practice with it by yourself?” Mulan teased, and Regina shifted on her feet impatiently. What should she do? Should she explain Emma's sword to her, that it was specially attuned against magic? Would Emma need to know that, for what they would face now?

How far had the Dark Curse reached? Regina had tried to anticipate its reach before she cast it, but Rumplestiltskin had only said that that it would encompass her own kingdom. They'd had a consistent problem with ogres, but Regina did not know any of the ogres’ faces, to know whether they'd be here, too.

Rumplestiltskin would know. And he would not care at all. What was he after, here? 

_ “Damn _ him,” Regina cursed. If James was here, Robert would be here. That would explain Jiminy Cricket - perhaps the curse also encroached on their kingdom, or what was left of it. The closest kingdom to Regina's. Would Robert be a threat? Not one greater than ogres, if any had been transported with them. The Storybrooke Sheriff's Department was sorely undermanned, if in a few hours they would face the Dark One.

And… Maleficent. “Damn it,” Regina muttered again. She was the only other significant magical force… that Regina could think of. Rumplestiltskin hadn't approached Regina. Had he approached Maleficent instead? She would not be happy with Regina. The bonds Regina had used to trap her with the trigger in the mines, Rumplestiltskin could break, if he was sufficiently determined.

And if they were in the mines, there was no doubt that they would both sense the trigger. Such a powerful magical object was unmistakeable. Their escape route back to the Enchanted Forest was suddenly far more perilous than Regina imagined. Would Rumplestiltskin recognize it for what it was? He’d given her the curse for a reason. Doubtless he would want to control the curse, if anything, to prevent Regina from activating the trigger before he had done what he wanted to do here. As she had been nearly determined to do, last week.

But Regina was getting ahead of herself. There was no indication that Maleficent was free. And other than the ogres, Maleficent was the only real threat to the town. It was unlikely that Rumplestiltskin's plan involved destroying Storybrooke.

She turned to find Emma close behind her, and Emma started with the force of Regina's sudden grip on her hand. “Emma, I have to check something.” Emma squeezed her hand back. “Please go home and stay there until I return.”

Emma frowned. “No. Dispatch said there's a problem at the nunnery, and there are reports that the lightning struck on the north side of town, in the forest. I've got to -”

“You have to stay  _ safe,”  _ Regina whispered. Without knowledge, Emma was defenseless. She had no idea who Maleficent or Rumplestiltskin were. She wouldn't know how to defend herself against them, and if they were concerned about Regina for any reason, having Emma hostage would be almost as good as -

“Our sons,” Regina breathed. “Let's -” she breathed out. “Trust me,” she whispered to Emma, smoothing the hair that fell around Emma's face, and then she kissed her lips for the first time in nearly two years.

Her transportation spell whipped them both up into itself, and Emma came with her. They appeared in Ashley's house. It was empty.


	9. Chapter 9

Emma thought Regina Mills was a lot of things. First off, sexy as hell. If you'd asked her a few years ago if she'd ever fall head over heels starry-eyed and hot mess infatuated/maybe in love with an older woman who clearly worked sixty hour weeks with three kids and ruled a small town with an iron fist, Emma would have - well… she'd probably have asked if it was Regina, and if they were fucking, and come out of the whole thing with a sense of smug self-congratulation, because damn. 

Maybe it'd be different if other awful nonsense involved in being an adult human and having kids and being romantically involved with a Type A tightass were required of her. For example, if she'd been asked to do laundry, or clean surfaces (whatever those were), or take out the trash. But a fuck-buddy arrangement with her hot boss didn't seem to have any downsides, which was why the past few months had been so out of the blue for her. She'd thought a divorce with her best friend - who didn't deserve bullshit like this from anybody - would suck, but Regina's hot and cold routine easily topped the divorce.

All of that was beside the point right now, because Emma thought Regina Mills was a lot of things, but hadn't ever thought she was verifiably insane.

As Emma washed sticky and thick blood off her trembling hands in a stranger's bathroom, she considered the possibility that this was a cosmic joke that ended with Emma herself in an asylum. Clearly Emma should just turn herself in now. It wouldn't take much, she thought. The signs were all there. Falling in love with the mayor. Feeling like she was more than just close - feeling like this was it, souls entwined, bodies in perfect alignment, boom, game over, Regina's it, forever. Thinking that the mayor's kids were probably the most important thing that’d ever happened to her, scrounging up poor excuses to be closer to them like a damn stalker, to the point that she wouldn't _mind_ if one day Regina said she'd leave town for a couple weeks and asked Emma to watch the kids - to the point that she sometimes dreamed of just that, even though Emma was at best another teacher to them. The sudden urge to parent these kids was totally not her, too, like - Emma had failed so miserably at married life with Killian, and hadn't _ever_ wanted kids, but maybe it was because it wasn't married life with Regina and her awesome kids and her amazing ass.

It was just so inappropriate and so damn, fucking right, and it made no sense but Emma had spent enough time trying to act normal and now the world itself had turned upside down, and it was almost a relief. Slaying a giant - well, that was more insane, right? So if Regina's story could explain the giant  _ and _ all of Emma's inappropriate emotions toward Regina and her kids, that was just good stacked on more good, a big pile of good.

Emma wiped her hands on the bathroom towel, only realizing afterward that the towel was white and, duh, giant blood was red, and the towel was ruined. She opened the door to find Regina where she left her, eyes bloodshot, nearly slumped against the wall across from the bathroom door. Her mascara was a thick black ring around her eyes. She'd already cried, but she wasn't crying now.

So if this was some kind of dream/nightmare, it didn't matter anyway, right? Emma stopped in the hall with her boots inches from Regina's killer heels and locked eyes with her. Brown eyes consumed her. Regina seemed to be holding her breath, although she straightened as Emma stood there, and Emma was holding her breath too, so she had to breathe in before she said, “I am so fucking in love with you, Regina. I don't know what the hell is going on, but I'm gonna just pretend that everything you just said is true and makes sense and I'm gonna follow you wherever the hell you want to take me.”

Regina blew out her breath and nodded. She hadn't seemed to even notice the blood on Emma's hands before, so it wouldn't hurt if Emma just touched her, right? But Regina turned away from her as she reached out, and Emma wrapped her hand around her own stomach instead, following her into the room down the hall. The sword on her back thumped uncomfortably against her. Just so weird, in a house that was so normal.  _ Emma _ was the freakshow, her whole body covered in blood, with a glowing friggin sword that she'd just used to kill a giant, which didn't feel even a little strange, and wasn't as hard as she had initially feared.

Three backpacks were in a line, red, blue, and green. Regina took in the room, a kid's bedroom which otherwise was untouched, and when she turned to Emma there were again tears in her eyes.

“How do we find them, Regina?” Emma asked her.

Regina shook her head, and one of the tears tracked down her face. “I need to think,” she said. “Can I tell you more now?”

“Yeah,” Emma said, leaning against the door frame, and then Regina stepped into her body, curling into herself, and Emma wrapped her arms around her. Her body was so  _ small,  _ fragile and thin, and it should have felt weird but Emma's heart burned with how warm and familiar it was. 

_ This _ was what made sense. It didn't matter whether the rest of it was totally, totally insane - maybe it did, but -  _ this, _ Regina's touch, felt like nothing else Emma could ever remember and maybe, evil curses and giants and magical conceptions aside, at its core Regina's story was about love, about  _ their _ love, and even in nightmare-land, maybe the trade of sanity to get Regina was worth it. 

And maybe it wasn't insane. Maybe it was true. With two fingers inside Regina and her body naked and splayed out for Emma to ravage, Emma was not as lost as she should have been. Regina's body responded so eagerly, and Emma could probably spend the next few months like that, repeating the motion that made Regina's inside tighten around her, fucking her until she came, and Emma  _ knew _ how that felt, even though she had never felt it. Five years together, with Regina? In a fairytale castle?  _ Sign me up. _

“So a witch cast a curse, and you're actually the magic queen, and -” and your kids are actually  _ our  _ kids, “- and, uh, Henry and Emmett and Daniel were just kidnapped. And I left you before the witch cast the curse, but I'm back now and we're gonna do this together, as a team.” Emma paused. “What was I? Like, a princess?”

Regina laughed, and when she looked up at Emma her eyes were glistening. “You were part of the royal guard,” she said. “And then you were my - my paramour. My partner.”

“Gotcha,” Emma said, again experiencing vertigo. “Like, the king?”

“Not the king. We pretended that our children were the late king's, Emma.” Regina straightened. “That is important. If we break the curse, and it is discovered that Henry is your son, a - a number of things will change.”

“Break the curse?” Emma repeated. “Is that the goal? To get back?”

Regina's eyes tightened. “I - if you want, Emma, yes.”

“You don't?”

“First things first, don't they say?” Regina pulled away from Emma, composed again. She was definitely keeping distance between them, like she always had, but right now it felt unfair. It felt like Emma was being punished for something she didn't do. Emma hadn't left her - that was someone else, some _ where _ else, and it wasn't Emma's fault. “I know where the magic trigger is, to return us home. I think that the man who gave the witch her curse will want to control it, although I don't know why he wanted to come here. In this land he is called Gold.”

“That's what you said, before. Mr. Gold cast the -” Emma laughed a little, and then tried again. “The spell that made the giant, right?”

“And restored my magic, and likely many others’ as well.” Regina had caught Emma's laugh, and did not address it, her mind focused on the problem at hand. “Ogres - are huge, not as big as the giant, and very dangerous. And they ban together. I am concerned that some of them came with us to this world. But far more dangerous than they, in the place that the trigger is hidden… there is a dragon. She is angry, and insane. That is who I think may have taken our children.” Regina seemed to startle a little when she said “our,” and her eyes jumped to meet Emma's, checking on her. Emma tried to keep the smile from her lips, with mixed success. “She can turn into her human form, but she - I - she has been insane for a long time, and blames me for her fate.”

“A dragon. Gotcha. So where do we find her?”

“The cavern where the trigger was hidden, perhaps. But we do not know if she is still there. Either way, she will find us before she does anything. She would want to gloat. A flair for the dramatic,” Regina added, rolling her eyes. “I do not think their lives are in danger, not - I don't think she will kill them. We must be careful, with our next action. They now have leverage against us. We need to turn the table against them before barrelling into a confrontation.”

“All right. How do we do that?”

Regina nodded to herself. “The reason Rumplestiltskin might have freed her… is twofold. He will want the trigger. He likely already has it. And… he knows that the dragon, Maleficent, hates me. He will release her to distract me from him, while he does whatever plan drew us here to begin with.” Regina cursed. “But I have no clues, no clues whatsoever, to hint at what drew him to this world. Especially now that he has restored magic.”

“It only matters if he runs, with the trigger.”

Regina's eyes jumped to meet Emma's. “You're right. We need to keep him in, and the outside world  _ out. _ That will be our leverage.”

Emma laughed. “How the hell would we do that?”

“Easily. I am going to transport us again. Is that OK with you, Emma?”

Emma fell right back in love with her when she looked at Emma with those eyes. There was no way she would have left this woman. And if Henry, Emmett, and Daniel were her sons? What had Regina done, that Emma could have left them? 

Why didn't Regina want to go back? If this was all true, it must have been heaven. Really just being with Regina. And if Emma had left Regina, why hadn't Regina gone to her right away, so they could ban together and break the curse, and go back? 

Because Regina thought if they went back, Emma would leave her again? Because… Regina remembered, and Emma didn't? Was the reason they'd stayed here instead of returning to the fairytale castle because Regina was afraid of Emma leaving her again?

It couldn't have been, because Regina had stayed so, so far away from Emma. It wasn't  _ Emma _ leaving her that made Regina want to stay here, because Regina had been determined that they should be apart.

Something wasn't making sense in this story, but Emma didn't have time to fully process. Anyway, Regina was talking, and moving away from Emma, and Emma's stomach was lurching and they were in a room with stone walls and no windows.

“Regina…” Emma interrupted her. “Where are we?”

“My father's burial crypt. And…” Regina gestured around them. “My vault.”

“Treasure vault?”

Regina smiled grimly. “It contains objects far more valuable than gold.  _ Magic.” _

“OK.” Emma was feeling agreeable. “What are you doing?”

“There was one slight variation to the spell,” Regina said, and then her face froze and she looked quickly at Emma. “The witch’s spell. I knew it, and if I just add…” She was busy, flitting back and forth between chests and tall storage spaces, the holes in a latticework of stone, gathering items beside a small pot.

So, that was interesting. It was Regina's spell that had banished them here. Why had she felt the need to lie to Emma? 

Emma shrugged to herself. It was all made up, anyway, right? She was going to help Regina, but no matter how real this all felt - it wasn't real, none of it was real. Emma Swan was an orphan drifter who'd happened upon a small town and, through a series of accidents, became its sheriff. She'd never had a family, and Regina and her kids were definitely not it. She was tripping some serious acid, probably, and when she woke up she'd be just as alone as she'd ever been.

“All right,” Regina whispered to herself, stealing a glance at Emma, and Emma weirdly knew the look. Regina was nervous, and she was looking at Emma for reassurance. Emma didn't think she'd ever seen Regina nervous. 

_ Why _ had Regina cast the spell? How many other people had she brought with them?

The entire town of Storybrooke?

Finally, it seemed that everything was ready. Regina leaned forward on the table, adorably, and then she looked up at Emma with some look in her eyes, wildness or fear. “Is this really right? Should we do this? What if the people need to flee - they will be trapped here. What if our sons are already outside the town limits?”

Emma shrugged. “I don't know, Regina,” she said. “I'm just following your lead.”

Regina breathed out in frustration, circling around the table to Emma. She grabbed Emma's chin severely, looking into her eyes. And then she leaned forward and their lips met, and damn but Regina was a good kisser, and why hadn't she let Emma kiss her before today, because she obviously wanted Emma's kiss, desperately. Regina's hands scrabbled at Emma's neck like she was looking for a collar, and then one hand snaked behind her neck and up into her hair. “I love you,” Regina whispered, breaking the kiss.  _ “Please  _ remember.”

Emma frowned. “Remember?”

“I need Emma Swan,” Regina said, as if she wasn't Emma Swan. She backed her against the wall, and kissed her again, and it really probably wasn't the time, but unfortunately Emma turned into a total mess, even though their hands weren't really doing anything at all. 

Finally Regina stepped back, watching Emma. “Nothing?” she prompted.

“I - a lot of stuff, actually,” Emma said. Her panties were totally soaked and both nipples were upright. She had the sudden sensation, like a memory, of her shaft sliding thickly inside of Regina's tight pussy, pounding into her. She remembered Regina's face in orgasm. 

“You don't remember yourself?” Regina clarified impatiently, and Emma shrugged and shook her head, feeling inadequate and also a little offended. What had changed in Regina's thinking, because obviously before she had just explained everything to Emma - and now she wanted Emma to remember everything, just like that. And  _ she'd _ cast the curse, so what the hell? 

Emma opened her mouth to snap at Regina, but Regina turned back to her table, dismissing Emma, and Emma closed her mouth. She pulled a map out of thin air, and pricked Emma's finger, tracking where the blood fell on the map. The clocktower. 

She tossed the map down and put her hands on the pot, and blue light exploded from it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the pretty much useless chapter of rehashing.


	10. Chapter 10

The Fawkes - a team name Henry had suggested - had played the Badgers from Bangor just this past weekend. Henry and Daniel had started, and Emmett sat with the kids whose parents hadn't come to the game. Even though he was benched for punching a teammate two weeks ago, Emmett wore his uniform to the game, back straight, ignoring the antics of his teammates on the sidelines. He couldn't be more different from the soft Daniel, or Henry, whose only fault was a certain haughtiness that he had clearly gotten from his mother. 

And although Emma  _ knew _ that Daniel was smaller than his brothers, the difference was imperceptible at distance. It wasn't his size that tipped her off, but - something - something else, about the way he wore that blue sweatband around his head like he wished it was around his wrist, about the way he ran.

Emma convinced herself that Henry and Daniel had switched colors (and positions), and then she almost changed her mind when Daniel scored for the first time. He had always played a different game than his brothers - a  _ worse _ game, if Emma was being honest. Everyone on the team loved Henry, feared Emmett, and felt nothing at all toward timid Daniel, who always trailed after his brothers like he'd rather be at home, reading. 

That game, though, was pretty damn good. Daniel scored three times, seeming almost surprised by himself, as Henry in green shouted encouragement from across the field. Every time he scored he ran over to Regina, who had brought a work folder to the game and buried herself in it, emerging only when Daniel presented himself to her with a huge grin and with Henry's blue sweatband on. Henry would never have gone to her in the middle of a game, but Daniel had no such qualms. He only cared about what Regina thought - never mind the team.

After the second goal, Emma drifted over to Regina’s folding chair and squatted beside her. Obviously she shouldn't talk to Regina, despite -  _ especially _ because of - what had happened in the hospital just a few months before.

But she couldn't resist. “Daniel's kicking ass today,” she muttered to Regina, and Regina closed the folder in her lap, eyes bright with surprise. 

_ “Daniel,”  _ she'd breathed, watching him on the field with new eyes. “They switched.”

“Yep,” Emma affirmed. “I bet it was Henry's idea.”

“I'm sure,” Regina said, before remembering herself. “I will punish them both. They shan't be deceitful.” She cleared her throat, perhaps aware of how strange that sounded.

“Come on, Regina,” Emma coaxed. “Look at him. It was a great idea. Now Daniel knows he can do it.”

“He should never have doubted,” Regina said softly, looking at Emma sidelong. “I should pretend that it was not Daniel who did so well?”

“Betcha they'll tell you tonight. Or  _ he _ will,” she said, nodding toward Emmett, who always looked like he was fuming, or maybe,  _ was _ always fuming. 

Regina nodded slightly, and then looked down at the folder in her hands, and Emma took long steps away from her, before her heart overflowed into her tongue. She was trying to give the mayor space. She didn't deserve to speak. She was not what Regina wanted. She wasn't required, and therefore she was nothing to Regina at all.

She snuck a glance over at Regina a few minutes later though, and saw that the folder was again closed in her lap. She was watching Daniel with rapt attention, and saw the last goal he scored. She met him on the sideline, and kissed his forehead over the sweatband. Emma had long since pulled Henry off the field - Henry, who had sucked way more than usual - Henry, who'd only done this to give Daniel a chance to be a hero for once - Henry, who was being held, a dagger tight against his jugular, when Emma and Regina exited the lift below the clocktower on the night that magic was restored to Storybrooke. 

Emmett struggled against his bonds and Daniel sobbed, and Emma and Regina stopped short, the gravel crunching under their feet.

“Maleficent,” Regina bit out. The woman was too pale, dress elaborate, with big eyes and a poise that reminded Emma of Regina. 

“The queen and her whore,” the woman answered, almost sweetly. “You thought you could  _ use _ me, Regina? Your dearest friend?”

“I see that Rumplestiltskin beat me here,” Regina said icily. “Tell us what you want and we can come to a compromise.”

Maleficent laughed, and Emma could clearly see the madness in her eyes and seeping from her pores in sickly yellow wisps like magic. She knew this woman. She knew her before she had turned batshit.

“I don't  _ want _ anything, except to see you suffer, as I have suffered, as we all have suffered under your cruel reign.” The speech had a practiced sound to it. “I want you to regret every single step you took that led you to this moment, every misguided and ridiculous fear that you had. Fears that have led you here. To the deaths of your precious children.”

Emma looked to Regina for direction. She found Regina stock-still, her face unreadable. 

And then Henry, face scrunched up bravely, the uncontested soccer team captain, the crown prince if Regina was to be believed, was falling, blood spurting from his tiny body. 

The rest happened quickly, a blur that Emma could remember afterward only as brief flashes of movement and sound. Emma herself was numb through it all, but the rest of the participants were ruled by wild emotion, which felt to Emma as foreign as the rest of the night had been. Some part of her was screaming, but it was far off, inarticulate, irrelevant.

There was a purple explosion. Maleficent was bound by light, her human body distorting grotesquely before bursting the violet seams open.  Emmett and Daniel were scooped away by invisible force, which Emma realized only later must have been Regina. It would have been hard to see it, because Regina herself was wrapped around Henry, Regina's magic a storm around them. 

Emma moved in slow motion down the sod corridor after the sorceress, who was ballooning, scaly, and Emma didn't understand until the woman slithered directly off the lip of the massive cavern at the end of the corridor and a dragon spread its wings in the air before her.

The dragon opened its mouth, and Emma nearly jumped off the cliff to mount it. As she reached the cliff’s edge, instead she flung her glowing fucking sword into the dragon's open mouth with all the force of her sprint.

The dragon's head exploded, and Emma watched the rest of its body wither away. It hit the cavern floor a headless diva in a black dress, accompanied by a distant crunching sound and then the clatter of  _ Liberty _ on the cavern floor. 

_ Liberty, _ her sword, right. Just like Emma knew Daniel's run apart from Henry's. Just like Emma knew Regina would kill herself trying to save Henry's life. Just like Emma knew in some distant part of herself that Regina  _ couldn't _ , because she'd already seen Regina try to save the life of someone whose soul had already been claimed by death. She couldn't remember, but she knew.

Emma didn't want to turn around and go back up the corridor. She didn't want to fight through that lightning storm to Regina and yank her off the boy.

The skin of his neck was healed. His brown eyes were open. There was no blood. Emma's heart jumped with hope, but Regina was despairing, weakly fighting against Emma's embrace, and the magical storm was dissipating around them. Henry did not move, ever again.

Emmett and Daniel were there, their voices a clamor of questions and exclamations, but Emma didn't have any words for them. She didn't have words for Regina, either. She didn't have anything, anything at all. This was her son, maybe, and Emma had nothing.

There was no recovery from this. There was picking Henry up, his limbs limp in Emma's arms, and walking with Emmett and Daniel to the lift. There was calling Mulan on her cell phone and waiting ten minutes with the boys and Regina, as lifeless as the cooling body in Emma's arms, until Mulan came and moved the pulleys that drew them all upward, to the surface, to the sky as it lightened with a hint of dawn.

There was 108 Mifflin Street, and Mulan offering to bring Emma to the morgue. It was the only thing that stirred Regina into awareness, into vehement and silent protest. Emma told Mulan, “No.”

There was a vigil in the twilight, broken finally by the unwelcome sound of the doorbell. It rang once, twice, and then the door burst open to a man with skin the color of gold.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the feedback guys. Sorry it got really snarled here. I'm gonna try to work out all the kinks now. Soon. 
> 
> I've provided a little more narrative description to try to help this make a little more sense.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who is still reading! The misery will end, I promise.

“The nunnery is in flames. Ogres are assaulting the town hall. Where is the queen when her people need her the most?”

Regina looked up from her seated position on the floor by the couch where Henry was lying in state. Emma was already on her feet, reaching into her - empty - scabbard.

The man standing on the threshold between the living room and the foyer was vaguely familiar to her. His voice wasn't - it was shrill, mocking, unpleasant, and as otherworldly as his skin. But the face…

“Rumpelstiltskin,” Regina said. Her first word since Henry died. She stood gracefully, murder in her eyes. Her black vest and white button-down contrasted sharply against the brownness of her skin in the white light of early morning.

He peered over the back of the couch, and Emma finally knew him. Mr. Gold, the landlord.

Regina said, “You are to blame.”

Gold looked up at her. To his credit, he seemed surprised. “No no no, dearie,” he said quickly. “I simply said that they would be protected from their fates here. Not that they were invulnerable to harm.”

“You released Maleficent,” Emma said. She'd gathered at least that much from what Regina had said before. Emma had her gun trained on the intruder, although she had the feeling it would be immaterial. Without _Liberty,_ she had nothing against magic. Why had she left it behind? It had seemed that all was lost. But all was not lost. Not yet.

“You still have two sons left, ya know,” he said, his mind apparently on the same track as Emma's. “And you cannot possibly kill me. I would rather come to an arrangement than leave two children motherless.” He addressed Regina, ignoring Emma completely.

Emmett and Daniel were curled together on the armchair beside the couch, their seven-year-old bodies fitting easily in the chair together. Emma could not spare them a full glance, but she watched them huddled there, out of the corner of her eye. Thank god that Daniel wasn't crying. Thank god that Emmett wasn't standing to fight.

Regina was trembling. “I will not _deal_ with you. If Henry's fate was to die at Maleficent's hands, the entire prophecy was false. And you knew the prophecy. When you offered me this curse, you referenced it. How did you know? And who profited from me believing it - except _you?”_

Prophecy? Maybe that was the missing piece. Regina had cast the curse because of a prophecy...  and she was suggesting that Rumpelstiltskin perhaps created the prophecy to drive Regina to cast the curse, toward his own means. It was all far too complicated for Emma to follow. She was lost, totally lost, in the subterfuge and lies. On the part of Regina? Or Mr. Gold - or _\- whatever_ he was?

Gold scrunched his nose and paused for a long moment, seeming nearly frozen in place. Before he had the chance to speak, Regina said, “Why did you need so badly to come to this land? What is here for you?”

“Never you mind that,” Gold said. With a flourish, he produced a purple gem. “Isn't this what _you_ want? Now the prophecy is rendered null, and your sons' fate is broken. All I need is a little more time. One week. And I will come back and you can activate your little trigger and go home.” Regina closed her eyes. Gold added, “And what I need from you is to lower your barrier spell.”

“I can't,” Regina said softly. ”I've added it to the curse. Only breaking the curse will remove it.”

There was a long silence. So Regina had quickly bowed to his wishes? Or was it a game? Emma believed that Regina could be lying right now. Emma thought she probably _was._

Regina turned and looked at Emma, realization crossing her face. Emma just nodded back at her, keeping her eyes mostly on Gold. Yep. She knew Regina cast the curse. It was a “whatever” situation. Emma had no idea what to think. She'd just follow Regina blindly, because she had no earthly clue what was going on right now.

Regina had kissed her and asked her to remember. She'd wanted Emma's opinion, her voice. Maybe before the curse, things had been different. Maybe with her memories, Emma would judge Regina, or Gold. Maybe she'd offer her opinion. Maybe she'd tell Regina what to do.

Maybe she'd leave Regina. Emma had no idea.

So that was what happened in Regina's vault (or whatever). Regina had changed her mind. She'd decided that she wanted the Emma from the Enchanted Forest, even if that Emma didn't love her enough to stay. She'd prefer Emma's advice, and her allegiance, with her memories rather than without.

Too bad, right? Emma's heart did pound harder, though, knowing what Regina decided to risk. If there was any doubt in Emma's heart of Regina's feelings toward her, that doubt was gone now. Regina loved her. She wanted Emma’s memories restored, even if it meant that she didn't stay.

And now, with Henry dead, Mr. Gold had said that the prophecy was null and void. Regina said she thought it never had been real. Either way, Gold offered Regina the trigger as a bargaining chip. And Regina did not deny that she wanted it.

She'd decided to break the curse and send them back to the Enchanted Forest. She must have.

“If you want,” she'd told Emma just a few hours ago. But Emma didn't know what she wanted. How should she know? She'd never been to the Enchanted Forest. What life did she have to come back to, there? A life without Regina, maybe? It didn't seem like a life at all.

So Regina had decided for her. For all of them. And the only other person who knew what it meant was Gold. The man who had the power to do what Regina wished, a power he had just stolen from her. The person whom Regina had deliberately decided to block from leaving Storybrooke, knowing that he had taken the power from her.

If Regina could not remove that barrier spell, would she have set it? If she had not intended to use it as a bargaining chip, what was its function at all?

Emma figured that Regina must be lying. It was more than a gut feeling. It only made sense. Regina must be lying, which meant - what? That she didn't want the trigger after all? That she was waiting for a real explanation for the prophecy, which Gold had effectively avoided offering?

Or that she planned to get the trigger without giving Gold the option of leaving the town? Maybe Regina thought he was too dangerous to release. Or it was vindictive? Two minutes ago Emma would never have bet that Regina had any fight left in her at all. But here she was. Trembling, face splotched and mascara running, standing with fists clenched. And fighting.

Gold snarled in frustration. “Well, if you won't break it, I suppose I will simply do it myself.”

“I'd like to see you try,” Regina snarled back.

“You are _nothing_ compared to the Dark One. My spell was the most glorious thing you will _ever_ accomplish.”

“Your spell was the lowest that I will ever fall,” Regina told him. “Next time I will trust myself, and my sons, and Emma. Next time I will not fall to the desperate state that made me think that this, this _hell,_ was the answer. Nobody wanted to be here but you, Dark One. Now you must find another way to get what you want.”

After that, they stood there silently, sizing each other up. Regina added, “If you want what's out there so badly, go and get it. Forgetfulness and death awaits at the far side of the town line. A fate that nobody deserves more than you.” The last word was a low growl. Without specificity Regina imparted the greatest condemnation of all.

Gold raised his hand, and Regina's snarl lasted only as long as it took for the smoke to clear in his wake. Emma tucked her gun into its holster and ran to her. She didn't collapse, although Emma expected she might. She let Emma hold her, though, and Emmett jumped off the couch and joined her in the hug, his nose bumping Emma's forearm.

“Hey,” Emma whispered, to Regina, maybe to Emmett, too. “Whaddya all say to warm covers and sheets for a second?”

Regina nodded slightly, and Emma nodded to Emmett, who led them up the stairs. Emma pulled Daniel off the couch and carried him, although he was way too big to get carried, up the half-spiral of the stairs and into Regina's room.

Emma sat Daniel down there and looked at his red-rimmed eyes. “Crazy night, huh? Can you believe the sun's already up?”

Daniel shook his head slowly, and Emma untied his shoes for him. “Do you got some sleeping clothes?” she asked him, but Emmett was already back from their room, offering up some Incredible Hulk PJs. Irony, if Emma had ever seen it. It almost made Emma smile.

Daniel slithered from the bed and followed Emmett to Regina's bathroom to change, and Emma circled the bed to find Regina paused over her own dresser. “I'm so filthy,” she whispered to Regina. The giant's blood had made her tanktop into a stiff vest, and still coated her arms where they hadn't been fully covered by her jacket. Emma took the silk shirt that Regina had barely grasped and shook it out. “Hey,” she said. “It'll be nice to lay down, right?”

Regina's eyes were barely comprehending, but she did let Emma pull her shirt off and slip the night shirt on her. Emma found another one and managed to undress and re-dress herself, and mostly coax Regina into the bed before Emmett and Daniel burst out of the bathroom.

Emma opened her arms to them and they piled on her and Regina. “I didn't brush my teeth yet,” Daniel mumbled, and Emma told him she hadn't, either.

They were a mass of warm stinky bodies and sleepy brown eyes. Emma tried to wrap her arms around every one of them. But she was probably the first asleep.

* * *

Emma woke up sweating. The sun was pouring through the curtains. Regina's arms were a vise around her shoulders and head, and the boys were still between their stomachs, curled in the covers with their heads propped on their hands and seeming perfectly content.

The giant blood on her skin had liquified in her sweat and stained through the light silk pyjamas Emma’d borrowed from Regina. She pried Regina's hands off her, and Regina stirred but didn't wake.

When Emma emerged from the shower, Regina's eyes were open. She had Daniel's head against her heart and her hand on Emmett's face. Her eyes flickered to meet Emma's, and then she looked back at Emmett, like the world began and ended here, in this bed, with Emmett's sleeping face.

Daniel pushed away from Regina, looking up at her, and Regina whispered something to him. He padded over to the bathroom where Emma was standing, and asked her to come with him into the bathroom. He closed the door behind them.

He brushed his teeth and they watched each other through the mirror. When he spit, he said, “Mom says you're my Ma.”

“That's what she told me, too,” Emma told him.

“She said she's taking us back to a castle and I'm gonna remember everything, but first I've got to keep track of Emmett and stay close to you.”

Emma laughed. “Good idea.”

He turned around, frowning, leaning against the sink. “Emma, what's going to happen to Henry?”

Emma was briefly struck speechless. She squatted down so that their eyes were at level. She started with, “He's not gonna wake up, Daniel.”

“Yeah, I know,” Daniel said. He seemed frustrated. “But like, what's gonna happen?”

“He's going go into a coffin, and probably into your mom’s crypt with your grandpa,” Emma told him. The Sheriff's Department had had more reports of suspicious activity from that crypt than any other location in the entire town, to the point that Regina had made a copy of her key and given it to Emma so that Emma could check it out without bothering her any more.

“But what about _him?”_ Daniel asked, after he'd absorbed that information.

“He’ll stay with us, in our memories. You'll always remember your big brother, right? We'll all live the rest of our lives remembering him. How good and loyal and - and noble he was, you know? We'll keep his memory alive and live the kind of life he would have wanted for us, and for your mom.” Emma waited for him to say something, but he didn't. Finally she said, “Does that make sense?”

Daniel nodded, puppy-eyed. “I always wanted to be like him.”

“You don't have to. We love you like you are, Daniel.”

Daniel nodded. “OK. I'm gonna shower. Can you close your eyes?”

Emma took a seat on the toilet and faced away, closing her eyes as he undressed. He turned the shower on, and Emma counted the tiles on the floor.

Before Daniel was done, there was a loud pounding at the door and then Emmett burst through.

“Emmett!” Daniel scolded form the other side of the shower curtain, sounding as furious as his little chirping voice would permit.

“Hey, Emma,” Emmett said, pulling off his shirt. “Mom says I'm showering with Daniel.”

Emma nodded. “Alright, kid, seems like I'm out of here.”

Daniel didn't say anything, and Emma closed the door behind her.

The bedroom’s air was stifling and heavy. Regina was still lying in her side. Without the boys, the bed seemed empty. The light that had been in Regina's eyes when she looked at Emmett was totally gone.

Emma climbed into the bed and held her from behind, interlacing their fingers. She kissed Regina's cheek because she could, and looked for something to say. Nothing was right. She couldn't alleviate Regina's loss - Henry _was_ gone, and irreplaceable, and Emma was useless as usual.

Regina said, “You're not angry about the curse?”

“I don't know, Regina,” Emma said. She rubbed her thumb against the top of Regina's hand. “How can I be mad when I don't even know what it was? Or who I was?” How different had the other Emma been? Was their resemblance skin-deep?

Regina seemed to almost sigh. “I shouldn't have done it. As I told Rumpelstiltskin. It would have been better to seek you out. Or - Snow White.”

“Wait… Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?” Emma pushed up off the bed to look at Regina.

“Dwarves?” Regina's face was blank. “What Dwarves?”

“You're not the… friggin Evil Queen?”

Regina closed her eyes. “Emma, please. Please, can we talk about that - another time.”

“I'm not saying you're evil. Sorry,” Emma said, and kissed Regina's closed eyelids, one and then the other. “Hey, sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. There's just this movie.”

“I see,” Regina said. She turned around and burrowed her face into Emma's neck. With the kids out of the way, it was more comfortable than Emma had ever imagined. They hadn't gotten to this point yet, the part where they were laying in bed together and not fucking. It felt like Regina's arms were the only comfortable place in the entire world, and it was suddenly unfair that she'd been deprived of _this_ her whole life. A horrible buzzing sensation ceased, in the back of her head, running through her body. Emma hadn't even felt it until it was gone, and she felt so relieved that her mind completely blanked.

“Do you want to go back?” Regina's voice was loud but muffled by Emma's shirt. Regina did not seem to want to unbury her face from Emma, and Emma wanted Regina buried in her. _Always._

Emma shrugged and squeezed Regina lightly in her arms. “I don't know. What was the prophecy you guys were talking about?”

Regina told her.

* * *

Regina’s eyes were red and she leaned forward slightly, elbows on the junky newsroom table, addressing the video camera. Her suit jacket was a bright blue, and her hair was washed, but there was an edgy static tension in her pose. On anyone else it would make Emma feel pity, but on Regina it just felt dangerous, like a live electrical wire snapping in a storm. On the other side of the camera, Sydney stood, grinning for no reason at all.

“The Sheriff's Department has drawn a line along the highway. Do not cross that line.”

First thing after leaving 108 Mifflin, Emma had driven with Regina and the kids in the backseat to the town line. They found that the pavement had been compromised, and in the vague distance, there was a massive figure, collapsed. One of many, Regina said, that she knew had crossed the line. This one was an ogre.

“If you do, you will die.” Regina paused, breathing slowly. “We are aware of a situation at the town hall, at the nunnery, and scattered throughout town. Stay in your homes. Avoid grocery stores in particular. If you can, and the distance isn't far, consolidate your family in one location. And keep reporting to the Sheriff's Department if you see any fantastical creatures. Jeremy is using the reports to track disturbances and feeding the information to the sheriff.”

She looked down at the script under her hands, and looked over at Emma. “Anything else?” she asked, the sharpness in her tone wavering.

“Yeah,” Emma said, and stepped over to her, putting her arm around Regina's shoulder and addressing the camera directly. “Everything seems like it's falling apart right now, but I promise you it will be OK. We will protect you. You're gonna be OK.”

Sydney turned off the recording, and Regina visibly deflated. Emma stood up, missing touching Regina immediately. She looked into the corner of the room, where Emmett and Daniel sat, eyes wide.

“You'll broadcast that on the local channel right away?” Regina asked Sydney.

“I will keep it on loop.”

* * *

It didn't feel like an uneasy peace, not with ogres occupying the town hall and menacing the downtown. The town fire department's only truck was literally torn in pieces, so the nunnery burned until it was an empty hulk, and while the nuns (now tiny winged flying things) mainly stayed together, a few of them were still missing. Mulan insisted upon driving around the town with her siren on, which mainly served to draw two to three ogres along in her wake when she was patrolling.

Regina had levitated Emma’s sword out of the crevice and returned it to her, and Emma patrolled on foot, mainly confronting people whose appearances had changed (as they were reported) and offering most of them safe haven in Regina's back yard, after texting a photo of them to Regina, and talking with them long enough to confirm that they weren't deranged as the ogres had been by their transformation. Regina had cast a protection spell over her entire property, mainly (it seemed to Emma) to keep Henry's body safe while they attended to the various issues that had gone ignored during the first 24 hours after the restoration of magic.

But it _was_ an uneasy peace, because other than the ogres there was not a war happening. And war - war was what had been brewing between Regina and Gold that morning, with Henry's body laying between them. Gold must have believed Regina’s lie, that she couldn't lower the barrier. They saw no trace of him, and Regina specifically told Emma and her two deputies not to go looking.

The peace was broken, finally, the evening of the second day after magic was restored. It was a Thursday, and Emma hadn't slept again since the day after Henry died. 36 hour days were a thing, right? Her body was tingling but her mind was overexhausted and clear, so clear. They'd nearly resolved every outstanding issue reported through the emergency line, although Jeremy was sleeping and Emma hadn't quite worked up the courage to check the voicemail on the line since he'd left the office an hour ago.

Regina called Emma and asked her to meet her at the town line, and by the time Emma made it there, the Mercedes’ engine was cold.

Regina climbed out of the back seat and led Emma to the town line. The boys stayed in the car, although Emma could see them peering through the windows at them.

The handwritten paper sign they'd put up at the line the night before was mangled beyond recognition by wind and mist. The message was smeared. “Do not cross,” with a big black “X” and a circle above it, Emma's approximation of a skull and crossbones. You could see tracks where cars had gone off the road to get around it.

There was a car, visible at distance, but closer than the ogre’s body. It had spun entirely around, and exploded. Flames still flickered in the ground before it. Through the blackened front windshield, Emma could see the corpse of the car’s driver.

Regina gripped Emma’s hand, hard. “That is Rumpelstiltskin,” she whispered to Emma.

“What? The - the body?”

“He thought he broke the curse.” Regina's mouth twitched. “But he didn't.”

“You tricked him,” Emma said.

“I did,” Regina murmured. She hadn't slept, either, Emma was pretty sure. She'd seen Regina pretty much every few hours since they'd recorded the PSA, or whatever you wanted to call it. She'd never had to wait more than a minute to get an answer on the photos she sent Regina, either.

“Are you sure?”

“Fully certain,” Regina said. “There is no doubt in my mind.”

“So, the gem is in that car? With him?”

“It must be,” Regina said. “I have lowered the barrier spell so that I can retrieve the gem. But it will only work for me, so you must stay here.”

She narrowed her eyes at Emma, and Emma had a sick feeling in her stomach. She shook her head. _No._

“You must stay here. Stand right here and wait for me.” Regina spoke quickly. She squeezed Emma's hand, said, “I love you, Emma,” and stepped forward through thin air, which seemed to solidify and then part to let her through.

The sick feeling intensified. Regina had taken that single step, and then she had stopped walking. She was just standing there.

Finally she moved. She looked at her right hand, and then Emma could hear the crinkling of paper as Regina unfolded something in her hands.


	12. Chapter 12

_ Your name is Regina Mills. Your sons are waiting in the car for you. Their names are Emmett and Daniel. The blond woman standing behind you is Emma. _

_ They are waiting for you to come back, but first you need to go to the car down the road and find a purple gem. It should be on the passenger seat, or, it was before the car burned. Look carefully. _

_ Move quickly. Now. Don't read the rest of this note until you've gotten the gem and given it to Emma. _

* * *

_ Your memory was wiped by crossing the red line on the pavement. It was a condition of the curse you cast which replaced the memories of the people in your kingdom and transported them to this land. Crossing the line can also cause a deadly accident, but it is not always instant. If you returned to Emma, you are safe from that part of the curse.  _

_ Give this note to Emma. She will explain everything else to you. _

* * *

_ Emma - _

_ The gem that I should have retrieved for you, if activated, will return us to the Enchanted Forest. Toss it into the flames of a fire, any fire. Outside the town limits, I believe it would not have any effect. Otherwise we would already be home.  _

_ My memories will not return, but if you and Snow White choose to, you may bring me to the place she knows, the place that will restore what was once lost. It is your choice, whether you wish to have the “Evil Queen.” I believe that I will not resist any decision you might make, without my memories. Certainly with my memories, I will help you in any capacity you request of me. That I can promise you. _

_ I have left in the car a manifesto abdicating and declaring Emmett's father to be an unnamed peasant. Show the manifesto to Roderick, the tailor. He was the manservant of Leopold (Snow White’s father, and the deceased king), and well-trusted in the court. When we all wake from the curse, he will keep Emmett and Daniel safe, and his pick of regant if necessary will be trusted. _

_ I hope that I have not made the wrong decision, but I also know that I could not ask anyone else to risk their life to fix the problem that I created. Deceiving Rumpelstiltskin and sending him over the town line was necessary, and in so doing I made the decision also to cross it myself, and erase myself from this world. _

_ By casting the Dark Curse I proved myself to be exactly what you feared that I was. Moreover, I did kill the serving-girl, Molly, and concealed it from you because I knew you would hate me for it. I suppose that at the time, murder did not seem so foul to me as the idea that you might decide to make a family with someone else. I am afraid, even after all this time, that my heart still turns with jealousy at the thought that you shared your body with another. But for what it is worth I am sorry for causing her death. _

_ I imagine that the woman I have left in my place will have nothing of herself, except love for you and for her sons. Even if you and Snow do not take pity on me and restore my memories, please do be kind to her, because she has done no wrong. _

_ And take care of your sons, Emma Swan. They are the only good thing I have. Protect them and cherish them as I know that you can do. They are yours, now. _

* * *

Emma woke up with the sun beating down on her face, fairly certain that the skin of her back had melted into the ship’s deck. 

She flipped on her stomach and turned the stiff leather jacket over her head until her ears stopped ringing. A really bad hangover? Or hopefully, a really, really fucking bad dream?

Henry. He looked so big, in her memory. She could remember him when he was five, and he seemed big then, too, like - not the slobbery burping infant that she'd held, for that brief moment, as the nursemaid exited the room where he was born; or the baby she'd held a few months later when his head was bald and his eyes bright, after Leopold was dead and Regina began making good on her promise of  _ partnership _ ; or the toddler who she'd watched stumble around his brothers to fall into her lap; not her son at all, not that he could remember - not that  _ she _ could remember, but she remembered him now, and he never would remember her. 

He'd been the one that had made Emma certain that the awful horrific prophecy could never be true. He was the one who might incite the hatred that would drive them eventually against each other, but there was no possible place in Henry's heart for jealousy or betrayal. There was no human being that Emma had ever met with such a pure heart, a heart so true and filled with trust. Henry believed - not in the life that they had led - he didn't see the ugliness of the past, and would never believe the truth of it - he believed only in the happy ending, the love that might triumph, and so Emma never thought that Regina's greatest fear might come true. 

And then it did. 

Emma had made Regina cast that curse, although at the time she had not imagined such a thing might be possible, or that Regina would do it. The vague threat of her last letter seemed like a manipulation to Emma. Like, maybe she planned to accept Robert’s proposal, and take his son as king. Fuck Regina, anyway, she'd thought. She'd wanted to see the worst that Regina could do. 

More than that, she'd wanted for Regina  _ not _ to do anything at all. She'd wanted to come home to her, finally, and have Regina apologize to her, and to forgive Regina and go back to their life together. She'd delivered Snow to safety across the sea, and she'd never promised anything except that she would go talk with Regina, and be sure that Snow’s fear of assassination was unwarranted. Snow had asked Emma to champion her as the rightful queen, but how could Emma? While Regina might have a temper problem, and really was a total bitch to Snow, Regina was the queen and the childish Snow ruling the kingdom would do more harm to it than Regina on her very worst days. 

Plus, it would really be against her sons that Emma would raise the banner, and that… she didn't see how it was necessary. So maybe, after Rumpelstiltskin removed Regina's memory spell and Graham told Snow and Emma what he knew, she'd panicked and worried that she'd delivered the kingdom into the hands of a psychopath by giving Regina children. That was all it was, though, a stupid little panic that had them shipping across the sea, and a petty fighting rage when Regina begged her to return  _ before she did something else she couldn't come back from,  _ like, fuck, any of this Emma's fault at all.

Through all the twists and turns, Emma hadn't ever turned against Regina, not really - she'd never said that the kids were hers, although they did call her Ma, she'd never said it was Regina who poisoned the king, and she'd left her just to return. Because sure, she was mad, but it was still Regina and Emma couldn't not come back, especially not over something that happened six years ago. 

So now Emma had spent nearly every day of the last half year at sea, increasingly malnourished and barely able to keep down the rum that the generous pirate captain offered her.

Over the course of the hellish journey, her panic and anger slowly gave way to a thrill in her heart. One more week, six more days, five more days and she'd be home, and man but she just wanted to hold them all, Henry and Daniel and stupid Emmett who probably had given Regina hell for this, because everything was always Regina's fault and also because Emmett loved Emma and would have been destroyed by her leaving without even saying goodbye.  _ Fuck, _ and that was the worst part. It didn't feel like two years ago. It felt like yesterday, and the curse was fading already in her memory, because the curse’s problems weren't the real world, and in the real world Emma had left them and it was all her fault. 

So Regina couldn't wait for Emma to return. Dammit, but Emma should have just told her she was coming back. All this shit was so not worth it. So Regina had failed Emma's test. So what? Emma was gonna go back to her anyway, as she had always planned. The curse was just a year-and-a-half detour on Emma's way home, except now Emma would be coming home to one less child, and a wife with no memories.

Regina didn't remember. She didn't remember her magic, or Emma, or their sons. She didn't remember herself, but damned if they wouldn't remember  _ her.  _ Their queen and the mayor of Storybrooke. It would be obvious to all who cast that damn curse. And Regina's note said nothing about her own safety while they waited for Emma's return.

Emma pushed herself onto all fours, peeking her head up. Her head spun. “Hook,” she croaked. 

“You alright, luv?” he mumbled, and his head popped up over the railing overlooking the deck. He looked as terrible as she felt.

“Pretty much,” Emma said. “Are we sailing? We’ve got to -”

“Save your queen,” he finished for her, seeming to stand straighter. He raised his voice, addressing his bedraggled and mostly passed-out crew. “You heard her, boys! Set sail for the Enchanted Forest, on the double! We’ve got three days to go; let’s make it in two.”

* * *

Emma purchased the fastest horse she could find in the port town. It took longer than was reasonable to get out of the town, since for whatever reason (the curse) every damn peasant knew her name and each one of them seemed to be determined to get the entire story from Emma. It was annoying because Regina hadn’t left any instructions on how exactly to handle the whole situation with the populace. It was like she’d totally given up, which totally wasn’t Regina. Or hadn’t been, before Henry’s death. Who knew, now? She didn’t seem to want the crown. She’d asked Emma to break the curse, and reveal to Frederick her infidelity for the purpose of seating Snow on the throne, and Emma had done just what she’d asked without really knowing what it meant.

Now she regretted it, because even if Regina didn’t want to rule, Snow wouldn’t get anywhere without Regina’s help. So, sure, now Frederick knew that Regina’s sons weren’t the true heirs, but that didn’t mean Regina wasn’t the damn queen. 

So Emma told everyone in the town that Rumpelstiltskin had cast the curse, and that Regina had killed him and broken it. Regina’s manifesto hadn’t been a confession for the curse, after all. And if Regina left the decision in Emma’s hands, she’d keep Regina on the throne if she could. Or, if not on the throne, just beside it. 

That was all she thought about, as she took the horse up the wide trade road from the port to the castle. It wasn’t too long, a day’s walk on foot, and Emma took it all at a sprint, because every moment was way too fucking long to wait, and who knew what could have happened to Regina and the kids while Emma was stuck out at sea.

The courtyard of the castle was open, and a crowd assembled. As Emma had feared, Regina was standing on a dais at the center of the courtyard, her hands bound behind her around an upright pole. Even without memories, Regina’s back was still straight and her chin jutted out proudly. Her simple white dress would have been frumpy on anyone else, but Regina made it as elegant as a wedding dress. Stains from tomatoes and other fruit were all over her.

Emma was the only one mounted in the courtyard, and the crowd parted before her. By the time she reached the dais, the courtyard was silent. 

“Shame on you all,” Emma shouted, and the walls of the courtyard echoed her voice satisfyingly. She'd seen Regina address crowds in this courtyard plenty of times. The whole scene was surreal, because this was their home and their castle, and now it wasn't, and Regina had nothing but Emma, where she once had everything.

Emma circled the platform once, driving the crowd from its edge. “Shame, for harming an innocent. This is your queen!” Emma pulled the reins of her horse, and they stopped moving. “Disperse,” she commanded, and the edges of the crowd started breaking up and drifting out of the front gates, looking like they wished they hadn't participated at all. 

A cadre of big men stood closer together, and one said, “She isn't our queen. Snow White is the king's daughter. She is just a whore.”

“That is for greater men than you to decide,” Emma told him, words tasting bitter in her mouth. Even though it wasn't technically false, and it wasn't like this crowd would have anything to do with the decision Snow would make when she returned, it still felt like a betrayal. 

“She cast the curse!” another said. 

Emma jumped on that, because at least that was something she could argue against. “Rumpelstiltskin cast the curse. She killed him and returned us to this land. She is the hero that saved us all, and you would do best to leave, before I call the guards to arrest you.”

“Can't find your handcuffs, Sheriff?” A bitter voice taunted, and she spun the horse to face the voice, drawing  _ Liberty. _ It sounded just like Gold, but it was just another peasant that she faced down. The man shrank away from her bare blade.

“Get out of here!” Emma snarled. “The castle is closed to you now.”

When the crowd had loosened, Emma jumped off the horse and untied Regina's hands from the pole. She was shaking, tears fresh on her eyelashes, and just so beautiful that Emma could barely remember how to breathe. Rather than releasing her, Emma put her hands lightly at the small of Regina's back, and Regina wrapped her arms around Emma's shoulders and sank into her, never mind the remaining crowd, never mind that they never touched in public because Regina couldn't remember any of that anyway. 

“Emma,” Regina breathed into Emma's neck, and Emma pulled away to look at her. She'd never heard that note in Regina's voice before, totally guileless, and when she pulled away she realized that she'd never seen that look in her eye before, either. Regina was so good at keeping up her walls, but the woman in Emma's arms had no defenses at all. 

“I've got you,” Emma told her. “You're safe now.”

Regina bit her lip and nodded slightly, and Emma touched her cheek where a streak of tomato juices clung. Regina flinched away, making a pained sound.

“That's blood, isn't it?” Emma said. Her heart was tight in her chest. 

She looked around them. The courtyard was empty. 

“Come on,” Emma said, and led Regina from the platform. Regina stumbled on the second stair, and Emma took her up in her arms. Regina was so light, resting her head on Emma's chest with total trust, which was awesome and also not quite right, because it wasn't Regina in her arms. It was someone else, a placeholder for Regina.

Emma marched to the inner castle gate, knowing that they had been watching them from above, from within the arrow slits and on the far side of the turrets. 

When she reached the gates, she stopped. “I am here -” Emma's voice wavered. “I am here representing Snow White, the rightful queen.”

The gates opened, and with the copy of Regina in her arms, Emma walked through.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know those days you really wish your beta wasn't doing chemistry at a national laboratory and would just get back to her real job, which is clearly beta-ing your stupid fanfictions?

_Two years prior..._

“Wait until he bends the knee,” Bartholomew said, his voice authoritative even if his presence was outshadowed by the queen’s. Bartholomew was a wizened fighter who'd taken his retirement from the Ogre Wars here, at its far reaches. Regina had selected him as her general, and he’d quickly become her closest advisor in matters of war.

Regina listened to him, cloaked in shadow in the throne at the far end of the room. Even unspeaking, she commanded the room’s attention. This was her throne room, after all, even if over the years it'd been so many other things as well. A playground for their children, a hospice for Regina's ailing father, a bedroom even, though not for sleep. Regina reigned over it through the iterations, because if nothing else Regina was the queen, and this was _her_ throne room.

“Untold multitudes will suffer if we do not move now,” Emma said, from her station at the queen's right hand. She looked out at the table of Regina's advisors. Bartholomew, Avery who was the captain of the guard, the treasurer, the merchant’s guild representative, Regina’s father, and several ambassadors from neighboring realms who resided in the castle with them and were sometimes invited to such meetings. And the unofficial advisors: Leopold's manservant who ran the castle, Regina's own maidservant who attended to her scheduling, and Emma herself, who probably shouldn't be here but whose opinion was paramount, and whose presence went unquestioned.

“And he should not hesitate to protect his people,” Bartholomew said. His voice echoed off the tall rafters and the stained glass windows.

Emma countered, “He cannot bend the knee until he has arrived. We must move now, before he arrives here.”

So the army went to face the ogres who threatened the barony, as Emma had urged. On the road, they crossed paths with Baron French, who did _not_ bend the knee, or join their war band. He fled to Regina's castle, tail between his legs. A few days after that they got the note from Frederick informing them that Snow had run away.

* * *

_Today..._

The Evil Queen in that Disney movie didn't have any advisors, not that Emma had gathered from the memories Regina's curse had given her. She'd been alone in nearly every scene, a solitary monarch who reigned over her terrified subjects with authority that was only mitigated by the unseen sense that Snow White was the _real_ queen. Or princess, or whatever the hell.

Then again, the Evil Queen had been childless, so obviously there were a few inconsistencies. The real mindfuck was that the girl Snow White had been born what, twenty years ago now, and the curse had only existed for a year and a half, from August to the second March, so obviously the curse’s Disney movie had been based on the reality.

Even though Emma _remembered_ watching the movie as a kid, and that was at least definitely longer than twenty years ago. Like, maybe twenty-two years ago, because it had been in the foster home with the sixteen year old foster brother who’d - and dammit, why couldn't Regina's curse have given Emma memories that were at least _better_ than her real life, instead of somehow actually worse?

And every other memory the curse had given Emma, every other detail, was totally consistent with the world Regina had transported them to. Like, New York City existed - Emma had visited it, during a weekend trip with Killian. She knew Regina and the boys had left the town for Augusta, and presumably they found it where it was supposed to be. The only thing that wasn't real was the town itself, right?

Or had Regina made an entire world for them? How did she get that much power? And what had been the cost?

Guards, Emma's old friends, had let Emma and Regina through the front gate, although obviously they hadn't made the decision themselves. The guards had shuffled them into the room adjoining the entrance hall, the one that was used for visiting dignitaries while they waited for a formal greeting. That was nice, although they did leave the door open and the guardsman Dram stood outside, as if Emma and Regina planned to storm the castle now that they'd breached its walls. As if Dram could stop them if that was their plan, which Dram obviously knew.

Emma used the time they were allotted to wash the blood and fruit stains off Regina's skin. Regina stood complacently, watching Emma with interest. Her eyes were bright, without her memories to weigh her down. She was utterly trusting of Emma. Emma distracted herself from the immediate situation by asking Regina what had happened during the three days of her absence. Unfortunately or fortunately, Regina was unable to provide much detail.

Where had she awoken? On a balcony, alone. Whose? Regina didn't know. And after that? They'd taken her to the dungeons, and she'd stayed there until they brought her out and tied her to that pole to be publicly shamed. Had anyone spoken with her since? “No, but I remembered that you told me you were coming, and I was not too afraid.”

Emma nodded grimly. She couldn't find any part of her that could smile. She was wading through deep water, searching for something in the murk, but unaware of whether it was even there at all. Where was Regina's father? Why hadn't he been in Storybrooke? She needed Regina back, and Regina needed - needed to hide from this, maybe. Forgetfulness must not have been so unwelcome, not that Regina had admitted it in her note. Her innocence allowed this Regina to endure something that Emma's Regina would never have accepted.

Were Emmett and Daniel safe? Yes, so they told her, and Emma didn't question Regina further. Emma never knew that Regina held Roderick in such trust, to entrust her sons’ safety to him when one son had just been killed. Had this really been the only possible way for Regina to return them to the Enchanted Forest? To drive Rumpelstiltskin over the town line, and then follow him herself - the only, only way?

She didn't know how to treat this Regina, who looked at her with such openness in her eyes, but wasn't Regina. Would it be better to treat her like she _was_ Regina, the queen who in such desperation had taken Emma's body and whose brokenness had slowly, somehow, been mended by love? The woman who'd held Emma so many years ago and cursed the false prophecy and Emma in turn, and wished she'd only had one son, instead of three?

Or should Emma protect Regina, as she said that she would? Should she wait for whatever cure that Snow knew, the thing that would return something that was lost… and in the meantime, take full responsibility for Regina, and the kingdom, and… dammit, everything.

Disney's Evil Queen hadn't had advisors, but Regina did. Emma knew each of their faces, the people Regina had assembled to give her guidance and help administrate her rule. The people who now sat at their appointed seat at the table Regina had commissioned, perhaps unconscious of the way the arrangement of furniture and bodies oriented around a focal point that was now empty. Regina's throne, in Regina's throne room, because Regina was the queen. Emma's neck was already hot with fury, and she hadn't yet opened her mouth.

Although Regina had selected Roderick as the bearer of her message from Storybrooke, it wasn't clear which of Regina's advisors would have taken over the rule in Snow’s absence. The tone she'd take would be dictated by that, so Emma settled her feet in a wide stance and stared them each down, waiting for one whose gaze did not break.

Each one of them looked away, and Emma took the offensive. “You should all be ashamed. The fate of the kingdom is in your hands, and rather than acting with dignity and respect you've besmirched Snow's reign with dishonorable deeds.”

Bartholomew looked askance at the merchant, Xavier, and Emma followed his gaze. “Whose plan was it, to publicly shame your queen?” She bit her tongue, too late, and then ploughed through. “I have here a writ from Snow White declaring her birthright and naming myself as her negotiator.” That was essentially it, at least… as far as Emma remembered. “She had envisioned negotiating with Regina, but I imagine that her intention is equally fulfilled by negotiating with you.”

There was something very awkward about the interaction. Because this was Emma, who many of them had known for years. She'd sparred with Bartholomew and squabbled with this merchant prince over the price of grain. Two of the ambassadors had children younger than ten years old, and they were her sons’ closest companions - or had been, before the curse. Once a week, Regina hosted dinner for the entire group, and Emma had spent many of those nights with one too many bottles of wine, playing chess with one or the other of this group under moonlight or candlelight. And during the curse, they had known the sheriff and the mayor. Who could remember Regina's announcement over the local TV channel in Storybrooke and think that Regina was the enemy here?

Should she accuse them of endangering Emmett and Daniel? How ridiculous an accusation it would be, to people who were so closely entwined in their everyday lives. But then, they'd decided to tie Regina up in the courtyard, motivated by base human brutality, or vengeance, or maybe lassitude, because Regina’d signed her own sentencing, anyway.

Emma was nearly immune to the awkwardness, because she was too pissed for it, but no, she wouldn't confront them about her sons. She would assume their decency would extend to Emmett and Daniel, at least, and if she was wrong she'd - handle it.

“And what is there to negotiate?” It was the guard captain, beautiful and brutal, a macabre scar distorting her face into a perpetual grimace.

“Regina's safety and her sons, in Snow’s absence. We must write Snow at the Ivory Court and inform her that the throne is waiting for her.” The group shifted in their seats - as Emma had suspected, they had not known where Snow was. Good. “Regina and Emmett and Daniel will stay here, until at least Snow arrives.” Nearly two months by sea, the journey Emma had just endured.

The merchant spoke. “And the queen’s curse? Simply because her magic is gone, we should ignore what she did to all of us?”

Emma repeated the story, which they must have already heard from the guards watching the courtyard. “It was Rumpelstiltskin's curse. She killed him, and returned us here, and because of it she has lost all memory. I will restore her memory and Snow will keep her here as queen mother.” _Or so help me._

They all kept their heads down. There was no apparent leader to agree to her demands, so Emma appointed one. “Bartholomew, you'll abide my demands. Agree, and I will leave you all to your own business.”

With shaking hands, the old man picked up the scroll Emma had tossed on the table and examined it. He grunted after a long pause.

“Yes. We will send word to the Ivory Court.” He looked through bushy eyebrows at Emma. “Emmett and Daniel are in their rooms, at their daily lessons.”

Emma sighed shortly. “Thanks.”

The kids were glad to see Emma, but kept shooting Regina looks, like they, too, did not know how to treat her. Was this their mother? Was she the queen or the mayor, a sorceress or a hero? This time, Emma repeated what Regina's note had said, and the boys understood. Snow White, their sister, would help to restore Regina's memories. They just had to wait, and hope, and… trust.

They had dinner together, and Regina tried wine for the first time, which she hated. She couldn't get enough of the boys, but when it was fully dark she did follow Emma to Emma's old room in the guard barracks. It was basically unused, but Emma shook out the sheets and the straw of the cot was fresh, and she still had some sleeping clothes here, for the rare night that she was expelled from Regina's bedchambers. She sat at the tiny desk while Regina changed, and it wasn't until Regina put her hands on the desk and leaned into her vision that she realized she was staring into space, exhausted and defeated.

“Has someone died?” Regina asked her. “You are so somber.”

 _Your dad, I think,_ Emma thought. _And our son._ She said, “I miss you, with your memories. We are playing a waiting game, and all I want is to have you back.”

Regina considered this, and she nodded. “Come. We will sleep, and tomorrow we will have a better plan.”

“Yeah,” Emma said. She lowered the lantern wick until it sputtered and died, throwing the room into darkness.

She settled into the place on the cot that was farthest from Regina. But the cot was tiny, and when Emma turned around, Regina opened her arms to her. “I missed you, too,” Regina whispered.

Nearly by accident, Emma was holding her, and Regina seemed to stop breathing. Emma could feel her nipple pebble against her arm, through the thin night dress Emma had given her.

When she looked at Regina in the moonlight, her face was blank with bliss. Emma relaxed, and Regina sighed softly. After a long pause, Regina said, “This is heaven.”

“I love you,” Emma murmured back to her, and Regina squirmed, rubbing their bodies together. Regina's eyes were dark with lust. Emma knew the look. She knew how wet Regina must be right now, because it never took much with Regina. “I don't think this is a good idea.”

“What?” Regina said breathlessly. “Am I doing something wrong?”

Emma rubbed her arm briskly, with the thought that it might snap Regina out of it. “No, it's alright, baby,” she said. She could remember what it had been like under the curse. All the feelings remained, without - honestly, any of the crap that complicated things. If Emma had remembered everything, would she have wanted to sleep with Regina while Regina knowingly and deliberately maintained the curse? Probably not. It was the events after the restoration of magic that redeemed Regina. Regina could have tried to fight against the breaking of the curse, and instead she decided almost instantly that she would cause it.

But to be batted around by Regina for that year before the restoration of magic, between love and being entirely ignored, that had sucked, too. She hadn't known why Regina was trying so hard to keep Emma away, and Emma still felt… everything she felt, even if she couldn't remember why, and it had hurt badly to be constantly rebuffed when she didn't feel like she'd done anything at all to deserve it. And the memory of Regina backing her into the shelves in the janitor’s closet, stripping her pants off, and fucking her, that memory was just as erotic as it had been before Emma remembered everything else. In that moment, Regina had been helpless against the drawing of their bodies together. And it had only been good for Emma. It had been Regina pulling herself together, and away from Emma, that had hurt. Sex with Regina had been the only bright spot in the curse for Emma.

In Emma's cot in the castle, Regina panted and arched. The unmistakable gesture sent Emma suddenly on overdrive. “Oh, baby,” she said, grabbing Regina's hip and pressing her down.

“This feels so good,” Regina moaned. “Emma, you’re so - your skin is magic.”

“What do you want?” Emma asked her.

Regina just shook her head and touched Emma lightly, stroking her arm and shoulders. Emma returned the touch, and Regina moaned, her skin rippling. “Your hands,” Regina whispered. “What is happening?”

“You tell me,” Emma grunted, pushing Regina's shirt up. She wasn't happy. She was - so, so unhappy, but just for a night, maybe, she'd give herself over to the senseless lust of their two bodies together. Especially because Regina wanted nothing except pleasure. Pleasure, Emma could give her. Maybe not happiness, but maybe happiness was something they'd never have again.

Regina whimpered as Emma put her hand over Regina's breast, squeezing slightly. Regina moaned Emma's name, and when Emma lined their hips up, she put slight pressure between Regina's legs with her thigh and Regina bucked hard, with a low, satisfied noise from the back of her throat.

“Is this what you want?” Emma asked her, watching her face, keeping her legs still so that Regina could clamp down on her.

“I just want you, Emma,” Regina said. “Just you.” She repeated the words as she rubbed herself against Emma's leg, and Emma sucked on her nipple and held still until Regina's rhythm changed, slowed, and stopped.

Emma scooted up to her face and kissed her chin. She considered running her hand up Regina's dress and taking a more active role in satisfying the hotness against her leg, but Regina had finished once already. She was smiling and really, why change a good thing? Emma kissed her softly on the lips and settled her body on her side, rubbing her shoulder, and Regina settled sleepily against her.

* * *

Lake Nostos was just a few days’ journey away. Snow hadn't had any problem telling Emma where to go, although she continued to look with suspicion at memory-wiped Regina, even after Emma spent a few hours exhaustively explaining every detail of the curse, false and true.

The one detail Emma couldn't fully explain was the disappearance of Baron Henry, which apparently had happened at the exact same time as the curse was cast. He died, obviously, and he'd been dying for a long time. Luckily, nobody pushed too hard on that point.

Snow continued to insist that Regina had killed King Leopold, but after a day passed Emma'd grown tired of repeating the same explanation. Why would Regina recognize your claim to the throne, Snow, if she was so nefarious? She just wanted what was best for the kingdom, but after Henry died she felt that she could no longer be the queen that the kingdom deserves.

And the unnamed peasant? Snow, it was _me._ Regina and I fell in love. Yes, it was before your father died, but sometimes love is something that comes at the worst of times. We didn't mean to conceive, but I can't bring myself to regret that we did. And now, dammit, I need Regina back, so just promise me you'll keep the kids safe and wait for us.

At the shore of Lake Nostos, Regina held Emma's hand tightly. “What will happen?” she asked Emma.

“You're gonna remember a whole lot of stuff you wished you could forget. But you're also gonna remember a lot of good stuff, too, and hopefully together we can heal.”

“I will find out why you are so sad,” Regina said, eyes wide and solemn.

“You'll remember our life together, Regina, yeah.”

“What will happen to me?”

“You've never changed,” Emma told her. “You'll still be there. I promise, because you know, it happened to me, too.” She knelt and scooped the water of the lake into her drinking cup. “Ready?”

Regina took the cup.


	14. Chapter 14

Emma was helping the men load the carriage when Regina arrived in the courtyard. The horizon was brightening, but the sky was still dark, and the morning air was crisp. Regina watched the vigorous activity with detachment, remaining in the stairwell. Her eyes searched the crowd of men, looking for -

There he was. Daniel was on the far side of the courtyard, drifting after two men who carried a particularly heavy chest, looking like he wished he could help but was also intensely grateful that he wasn't required to. 

The carriage was packed and closed up bare moments later. Daniel launched himself into Emma's arms, which was a feat because he was taller than her, all angles and misplaced elbows and knees. Not a man, but no longer a boy. 

Emma said something to him and he grinned happily, releasing her and responding earnestly.

Emma's eyes met Regina's across the courtyard, and Daniel turned to run to Regina. Emma's smile faded instantly, but was renewed when Daniel nearly bowled Regina over in his enthusiasm. 

Daniel recited his promises to Regina, and then he climbed into the carriage and the footman urged the horses forward, through the castle’s gates. And Daniel was gone, alone but unafraid, leaping into the world with arms outstretched. 

* * *

Regina spent most of the day in the library studying seventeen writs of allegiance, and accomplishing little. In the afternoon she went to watch the guards sparring, finding that the exercise had already ended and just Emma and Emmett remained.

Emmett was not gangly, nor awkward. He moved with confidence and skill, and his arms showed clearly the many hours each day he spent here, training, and increasingly, in the field of battle as well.

Emma and their remaining son circled each other and then came together in a raucous clashing of blades, sluggish but persistent. Both of them were bruised and must have been exhausted, but neither showed a sign of wanting to quit. Maybe this was just the way Emmett knew how to say... whatever it was he needed to tell Emma today.

No wonder he found it so challenging to communicate with Regina. Regina drew away from the edge before either of them saw her. Before she knew it she was outside, walking with measured steps. The place was not far. The smell of the forest was earthy and rich, welcome to Regina. She so rarely rode in the forest, neglecting Rocinante in favor of her sons, Emma, and the kingdom. Counterintuitively, Snow’s reign was more straining than even Regina's own had been. The girl made work for Regina, obviously. 

When Regina reached the spot, she sank into the familiar bole of a nearby tree, clasping her hands together and wondering why she tortured herself like this. It was penance, maybe, for the one death Regina truly regretted causing. The death that she'd hidden for so long, and finally confessed to - the death that had driven such a rift between Regina and Emma. The rift that had led to the curse, the curse which had stolen her firstborn from Regina and nearly destroyed Regina completely. 

_ If I'd known you would - pick me out like that, of course I wouldn't have slept with her!  _ The truth spoken with such simplicity, and such a grand misunderstanding after all was said. 

The serving girl Molly’s child had not been Emma's. The confession Regina had forced from her had been true, but Regina had entirely misunderstood the timing. If Emma Swan had been unfaithful, it had been on a retroactive basis, which is to say that she had not been unfaithful at all.

The burial mound was marked by a pile of stones, and the carving of a doe inlaid in painstaking detail on an oak panel. The huntsman's tribute to a death he had forgotten for so many years, and mourned as if he had himself been responsible. A heart such as his, which continued to grieve even while removed from his body. How irritatingly obtuse. 

Yet it was Regina who visited this grave on this day.

* * *

She returned late to the castle, and by the time she was in her bed chambers Emma was already sleeping, sprawled out under the sheets. Her face was hidden under a veil of golden curls, Regina's white knight.

Regina slipped under the sheets, and Emma shifted, first making room for her, and then waking more fully and fitting her body against Regina's. This was how Regina liked to fall asleep, but she did not feel sleepy at all. The muscled expanse of Emma's back was accessible to her, and she ran her fingers over it lightly.

In the space between their legs, Emma's cock stirred. Regina enjoyed it - enjoyed having Emma thick there, between her legs, and she rotated her hips so that her lips could rub against Emma slightly. 

Emma grew thicker, and Regina murmured a question. Emma didn't always enjoy being woken up just hours after she had fallen asleep, but when sex was in the offering it might be different.

Emma wasn't awake. Regina would let her sleep, then.  _ Mine, _ she remembered, resisting the urge to trace the full planes of her territory. Emma's shoulders, which Regina would like to sink her teeth into. Her arms, toned and smooth, which Regina would like wrapped around her own hips. Emma's beautiful face, turned up to Regina, which Regina would prefer to shower in kisses but instead just studied silently in the dim light of a lantern nearly extinguished.

The cock was still hard between Regina's legs, and she started rubbing slightly, just for satisfaction. She considered putting her fingers between them, but no -  _ Emma, _ Regina needed  _ Emma _ ,  _ her  _ Emma, and finally she let her hands do what they wanted, snaking between their bellies and around the thickness between her legs. 

She flipped Emma on her back and followed her hands’ path down Emma's body, not hesitating at all before she opened her mouth and took Emma's head into her mouth. She sucked, and pushed Emma into her throat, watching as Emma woke up startled, and then looked down at her. Regina started moving her hands along Emma's length, loose at the beginning and tight when she reached her mouth, urging Emma's cum down her length into Regina.

Emma watched hungrily. Not angry at being woken, it seemed. Regina released her cock with her hands and mouth and climbed up the bed, whispering greetings and giving featherlight kisses up Emma's body to her face, before she continued upward, settling her legs on either side of Emma's head. 

Emma committed fully and immediately, hunting through Regina's folds and along the length of her clit for Regina's orgasm, teasing and then fulfilling, avoiding Regina's entrance as if it would make Regina forget the emptiness inside her body. Often this was enough to send Regina over the edge, but she'd been seduced by a cock between her legs and her body could only be filled by one thing right now. 

She let Emma exert herself anyway. She settled her hands on well-worn handholds on the bed frame and her body shuddered and arched in pleasure, and Emma grabbed her hips and she stilled, understanding Emma's unspoken message. Until Emma began moving her hand around Regina's ass and down between Regina's legs, and Regina pulled away. 

_My Emma,_ Regina reminded herself. Only hers. She enjoyed the path downward again, settling once against Emma's stomach and riding her, conscious of her clit against Emma's stomach and the emptiness between her legs. She needed Emma sheathed inside her, but riding Emma's stomach felt so good that it was hard to stop. She watched Emma's breasts bounce and imagined her cock bouncing too. Poor Emma, waiting patiently for whatever Regina had planned. More wetness seeped out of her, painting Emma's stomach. 

She pulled away, standing partially up on her feet because Emma's cock was far too long and hard to navigate around on her knees. She'd intended to settle behind it and watch Emma a little more, but was waylaid and instead settled herself on Emma's head. She rotated her hips, painting Emma's cock with her wetness. Regina imagined it dripping down Emma's length, and she pushed down, knowing how empty she was, how wet and longing her body had been for these long minutes of anticipation. She wanted Emma to fill her, to see the fullness of her jumping in Regina's belly as she rode on top of her, and yet somehow the head of Emma's cock still was too thick. Regina grunted in frustration, and Emma reached up and adjusted herself against Regina, in the motion catching Regina's clit with her finger. 

Regina bucked into Emma's touch, and Emma kept teasing, until Regina worried that instead of having Emma inside her when she came, she would orgasm like this, unable to have Emma inside but so close to satisfaction, with Emma feeding her desire until she could not do anything but drive up to the peak. 

And then Emma thrust, and Regina was filled. Regina batted Emma's hand aside and settled on her knees, smiling in satisfaction at Emma, adjusting to the girth of her. Emma smiled back.


End file.
